PRESS RELEASE
AFL-CIO Policy Director Is Angry President Trump Hasn’t Gone with Glass-Steagall, But Stuck by Mnuchin—‘Thus Far’
Feb. 12, 2017 (EIRNS)—AFL-CIO Director of Policy Damon Silvers published an angry op-ed in The Hill last night, assailing President Trump for abandoning Glass-Steagall and appointing Steve Mnuchin and other Goldman Sachs people to his economic team. Although from his Trump-bashing tone, one might conclude that Silvers and the AFL-CIO had given up on winning the battle to change Trump policy on this score, Silvers prefaced his blast that Trump had sold out on his "promises to look out for regular working Americans," with a key conditional note: "thus far."
"President Trump has put together an economic team completely dominated by Goldman Sachs alums, made attacks on the financial regulations and agencies that most directly protect working Americans and has completely abandoned the real Republican financial reform agenda—measures like restoring Glass-Steagall that would really help Main Street America,"
Silvers wrote.
Silvers stressed the need for reinstating the 1933 Glass-Steagall banking separation law (repealed in 1999), which he noted is also part of "the Republican Reform Agenda." He wrote that "on the campaign trail, the President called for a 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act, which would effectively separate regular, everyday banking on Main Street from high-stakes gambling on Wall Street.
"It has long been embraced by leading Republicans, like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). As have other measures that would level the playing field between large firms and community banks and orient the financial system toward supporting the real economy, such as ending the carried interest loophole for hedge funds and private equity and placing size limits on the big banks."
