PRESS RELEASE
Resolution for Glass-Steagall
Presented at National Conference
of State Legislatures
Aug. 13, 2013 (EIRNS)—Two state senators and one former state representative gave impassioned pleas for the re-establishment of FDR's Glass-Steagall policy at a committee meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) yesterday. A grouping of several dozen state legislators and bankers formed the audience at the NCSL's Committee on Communications, Financial Services and Interstate Commerce.
Leading off the presentations was Delaware Sen. Catherine Cloutier, who authored a resolution for restoring Glass-Steagall that will be voted on by the conference. Sen. Cloutier defined the content of Glass-Steagall:
"Number 1: separating sound Commercial Banking activity from Investment banking, which is entirely speculative; and
Number 2: establishing Federal Deposit Insurance by the FDIC, to insure the commercial bank deposits of all the American people."
The repeal of this act in 1999, she argued, has brought us the current financial and economic crisis. She then highlighted the role of Ferdinand Pecora in 1933, in preparing the groundwork for the passage of Glass-Steagall by exposing the sleazy bankers of the day, and called on those present to follow the example of fighters Pecora and FDR and pave the way for a real economic recovery, by passing Glass-Steagall.
Sen. Cloutier then yielded her time to Sen. Perry Clark of Kentucky, and former Michigan State Representative, and current Detroit School Board head, LaMar Lemmons. Clark presented a brief indictment of Wall Street's looting practices, in the wake of the removal of the "wall" of Glass-Steagall: "It's a rigged game, people. We must put that wall back up." He told the legislators that they had to have courage to get it done, but that Glass-Steagall was essential to create a future.
Lemmons spoke very briefly on the life-or-death situation being imposed by the bankers on Detroit. "Unless you re-erect Glass-Steagall and stop the bleeding, our pensioners have now been made vulnerable," he said.
A vote on the resolution is expected today.
Indicative of the fight likely to ensue is the attention being paid to this resolution by the Wall Street banks, who had a heavy presence at the hearing, and reacted furiously. Indeed, two of those attending were the same JPMorgan Chase bankers who had registered in Delaware to lobby against (and threaten) supporters of the Delaware Senate memorial for Glass-Steagall.
