Effenberger Evokes Celani-Trichet Exchange on Glass-Steagall

March 24, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Wolfgang Effenberger, (in German) a former Bundeswehr officer and book author, who is often associated with the Alternative for Germany party, raised the issue of Glass-Steagall and mentioned one of the exchanges between EIR’s Claudio Celani and the European Central Bank’s Trichet on the issue, though without identifying either Celani or EIR.

Effenberger wrote that then-U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, who voted against the abolition of Glass-Steagall in 1999, “was vindicated in his warnings, that the consequence would be a giant bailout scheme, financed by taxpayers, to rescue a derivatives-plagued banking system. On April 8, 2010, [then] ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet was asked whether it would not be easier to sort apart and reorganize the bankrupt financial system along Glass-Steagall criteria, rather than protect worthless bank securities with central bank guarantees. Trichet did not respond to this question, but tersely stated that Glass-Steagall was an American law on which he did not wish to comment.”