PRESS RELEASE
JPMorgan & Mega-Banks Publicly
Oppose Glass-Steagall in Delaware
DOVER, Delaware, June 27, 2013 (EIRNS)—A public, all-out brawl has broken out in the small but historic state of Delaware, for and against the restoration by Congress of Franklin Roosevelt's Glass-Steagall Act. Representatives of the biggest U.S. bank, JP Morgan Chase, all the other mega-banks from the U.S, and even some European mega-banks have jumped in, apparently desperate to slow down pro-Glass-Steagall momentum. These gigantic banks, with derivatives gambles of almost $300 trillion, are reportedly putting intense pressure on the highest-level state elected officials, to block the adoption of a simple, two-page, non-binding pro-Glass-Steagall resolution!
At a Delaware State Senate hearing last Wednesday, June 19, a JP Morgan spokesman cited the national campaign in which many state legislatures have introduced, and some have passed LaRouche PAC-initiated pro-Glass-Steagall resolutions. Many leading national figures, in Washington and around the country, immediately concluded, as one institutional leader put it in a question to Lyndon LaRouche on his LaRouche PAC webcast last Friday June 21, JP Morgan's response "is indicative of the fact that the fight for Glass-Steagall is reaching a tipping-point."
At the center of this fight in Delaware between representatives of gigantic forces, is a simple, two-page, non-binding resolution, through which members of the Delaware State Senate call on their one Congressman and two U.S. Senators to co-sponsor HR 129 and the identical U.S. Senate restore Glass-Steagall bill, S985 . However, the (Delaware) Senate Resolution No. 8, when introduced on May 15, was co-sponsored by a bi-partisan group of 10 of the 21 Senators, the 6 (majority) Democrats, including the current Majority Whip and former Majority Leader, making passage likely— if nothing got in the way.
At that point, JP Morgan Chase jumped in with all four feet, to stop this two-page resolution, with Morgan's Delaware spokesman registering on the states web site on May 27 as lobbying on (i.e. against) SR No. 8. As pressure mounted, from the state and local officials and activists backing Glass-Steagall, for a committee hearing on, and passage of the resolution, JP Morgan got reinforcements. Joining in the (legally-required) state registration as lobbying against SR 8, were lobbyists for bank groups representing the big 6 U.S. mega-banks, and even mega-banks from Britain, Netherlands and Germany; the state spokesman for the giant Bank of America; and then, the day before June 19, the scheduled day for the Senate Banking Committee hearing, a second Bank of America official, a Senior VP was brought in from Washington, D.C.!
At the hearing itself, chief sponsor Sen. Bruce Ennis's presentation of the need for Glass-Steagall was met with demands from the JP Morgan spokesman that "it would be very inadvisable for Delaware, of all states, to pass this resolution at this time." When Sen. Ennis cited the U.S. government's GAO report that the big banks had received bail-outs of $16 trillion, the Morgan man falsely replied "That was the TARP. It was all re-paid, with interest." (The TARP was $700 billion. The banks represented at the hearing had received bailouts of over $11 trillion, according to the GAO.) Yet when Sen. Ennis three times warned of bail-ins by US banks, similar to Cyprus seizing huge amounts of bank deposits of businesses, churches and colleges, not one of the bank spokesmen said one word to deny it.
Multiple sources in and around the state legislature report tremendous pressure from the bankers on the highest-level state political officials, to quash Senate Resolution No. 8. One top bank lobbyist was heard to state, the big banks are livid, and political leaders gave similar reports. Adding to the fray Wednesday June 25 was the report from D.C. of the Congressional hearing featuring strong endorsement for a Glass-Steagall separation of the mega-banks by leading bank regulators, current FDIC Vice-Chair Thomas Hoenig and well-known FDIC former Chair Sheila Bair
At this writing, there is a bureaucratic maneuver underway, reportedly ordered from on high, to keep the resolution bottled up in committee until the end of the session, June 30th. Nonetheless, the ten State Senators and the other fighters for the Glass-Steagall resolution are expressing pride that they upheld Delawares patriotic tradition as The First State to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
