Picture from Oct. 20th, 2011. Union guys including IBEW, Teamsters and SEIU join Occupy Wall St., NYC, NY
A 12-page Alternet.org expose dated Oct. 19, "Which Bank is the Worst for America? 5 Behemoths That Hold Our Political System Hostage," will help our drive to force through Glass-Steagall before it becomes too late. The "5 behemoths" are Bank of America, JP MorganChase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs. The very title, backed up as it is by extensive documentation on the pernicious influence of these five, buttresses LaRouche's point: contrary to the lies from Wall Street and Obama, Glass-Steagall will not "shut down the banks." Rather, it will shut down about six banks which are nothing but Wall Street predators, as Alternet proves, which we will be better off without. It will leave thousands of functioning commercial banks in the U.S.
The article opens with an unusually competent sketch of how we got to where we are — i.e., through the process of repeal of Glass-Steagall.
"The giant mortgage bubble and the irresponsible and corrupt practices that caused the catastrophic economic crash didn't emerge out of thin air. They were a consequence of decades of pay-to-play politics rife with conflicts of interest; a political system awash in cash and legal pay-offs, designed to undermine the checks and balances that could have prevented the meltdown.
"Many of these checks and balances were implemented during the Great Depression. How they were eroded and eventually abandoned is the story of a small group of banks, financial companies and elites involved in major conflicts of interest, revolving-door politics and backroom deal-making — all to protect the interests of the global elite at the expense of the American public.
"Big Finance has a long history of working hard to deregulate the American economic system on behalf of global capitalism run amok. One of its biggest coups was the overturning of the Glass-Steagall Act, a Depression-era law that created a firewall between investment banking and the commercial banks that hold deposits and make loans.
"The first victory in the quest to overturn this major protection came in 1986. Under intense pressure from Wall Street, the Federal Reserve reinterpreted a key section of Glass-Steagall, deciding that commercial banks could make up to 5 percent of their gross revenues from investment banking. After the board heard arguments from Citicorp, J.P. Morgan and Bankers Trust, it loosened the restrictions further: in 1989, the limit was raised to 10 percent of revenues, and in 1996, they hiked it up to 25 percent....
"The following year, after 12 unsuccessful attempts, Glass-Steagall, which would have made the crash of 2007-2009 impossible, was finally repealed. And it was only then that the explosion of shaky mortgage-backed securities began. Subprime loans, which made the mortgage system so vulnerable, made up 5 percent of all mortgages in the U.S. the year before repeal, but had skyrocketed to 30 percent of the total at the time of the crash."
