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Citizens Electoral Council of Australia
Media Release Friday, 3 February 2017
Craig Isherwood‚ National Secretary
PO Box 376‚ COBURG‚ VIC 3058
Phone: 1800 636 432
Email: cec@cecaust.com.au
Website: http://cec.cecaust.com.au
Glass-Steagall introduced in US Congress—it’s now Trump’s move
The 1933 Glass-Steagall banking separation policy has been reintroduced into the US Congress, and now the focus is whether President Trump’s administration will follow through on his 26 October campaign pledge to enact a “21st Century Glass-Steagall”.
This is timely to say the least, as more and more signs are pointing to a new, far worse financial crash than that of 2008. The Italy-centred European banking crisis threatens both London, where most of the derivatives infecting the European banks are traded, and Wall Street, which has a US$2 trillion exposure to European banks. British banking experts are warning that eight years after the last crash the UK’s banks still are not safe. Wall Street’s biggest Too-Big-To-Fail banks are holding hundreds of trillions of dollars of dangerous derivatives bets that are many times their assets: JPMorgan’s are 20 times their assets, Citibank’s 28 times, Morgan Stanley’s 34 times, and Goldman Sachs’ 51 times! And Australia is experiencing a rise in mortgage delinquencies, such that the number of households behind in payments rose 25 per cent last year, while the number behind by three months or more jumped 41 per cent—another threat to the property bubble that will bankrupt Australia’s derivatives-addicted banks when it bursts.
Only a full Glass-Steagall separation of commercial banking that serves everyday people and the real economy, from investment banking that gambles in dangerous derivatives, will protect the economy from another financial crash.
Knowing this, US Congressional Representatives Marcy Kaptur (Democrat-Ohio), Walter Jones (Republican-North Carolina), Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) and Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) spoke at a press conference on 1 February where Kaptur announced the launch of the Return to Prudent Banking Act (H.R. 790), which includes the restoration of Glass-Steagall. The bill already has 27 co-sponsors.
Kaptur said: “President Donald Trump even endorsed the call for ‘a 21st-Century version of Glass-Steagall’ during a campaign statement in Charlotte, North Carolina. We have an obligation to work with him to achieve that.” An Ohio-centred delegation presented Kaptur with 650 letters to President Trump and asked her to deliver them, which she pledged to “find a way to do”.
Meanwhile the open discussion on Glass-Steagall continued at the White House, where President Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer was asked by Bill Jones of Executive Intelligence Review whether Trump still supported Glass-Steagall. Jones noted President Trump’s unequivocal support for Glass-Steagall during the campaign and the demand for Glass-Steagall in the Republican Party platform. But, Jones said, Treasury Secretary-designate Steven Mnuchin, when queried about it by Senator Maria Cantwell, the author of the Senate Glass-Steagall bill, gave an ambiguous answer. “Where does the President stand?” Jones asked.
(In his confirmation hearing, Mnuchin was cagey about Glass-Steagall, saying he didn’t support restoring it “as is”, but a “21st century” version of it; the former Goldman Sachs partner’s reasons are easily refuted. Mnuchin has been staunchly opposed by Democrats on the Senate Economics Committee for his fraudulent practices as head of OneWest bank regarding mortgage foreclosures. However those Democrats didn’t mention that Mnuchin’s business partner in that bank is billionaire megaspeculator George Soros, whose financial empire is a front for City of London financial interests, who effectively owned Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and who uses his billions to smash nations economically, through currency raids etc., and politically, through so-called “colour revolutions”.)
Spicer then went into a lengthy comment about the need for the President’s nominees, including Mnuchin, to be voted on by the Senate before President Trump can proceed on his agenda. Jones pressed him: “Then the President still supports Glass-Steagall?” To which Spicer responded: “The President’s position is consistent.”
What will Australia do? That is up to you
If the United States reinstates Glass-Steagall, then where will that leave Australia? Either we continue to act as a loyal British geopolitical asset in the Asia-Pacific with a housing bubble getting bigger by the day, or resume the direction of the Curtin-Roosevelt alliance and develop our nation with infrastructure financed by a national bank, and join the One Belt, One Road led by the world’s faraway leader in economic growth, China, which has had Glass-Steagall banking separation since 1993.
It’s up to you. Act now:
Click here for a free copy of the latest issue of the Australian Alert Service magazine, which includes up-to-date reports on the threats to the global financial system, and the fight for Glass-Steagall.
Click here to join the CEC as a member.
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