The differences couldn't be greater
Progressives who like to believe that there is no difference between the democratic primary candidates have just had a major
rude awakening moment as Hillary Clinton distinguishes herself from candidates Sanders and O'Malley.
Glass-Steagall which was passed into law in 1933 forced big banks to split their investment and commercial banking practices. It was repealed under the Clinton Administration and is credited with being responsible for the 2008 financial collapse.
Despite a promise yesterday to be tough on Wall Street and an ongoing effort to woo liberal-minded voters that favor the Elizabeth Warren style of politics, Hillary Clinton will not include a call for restoring the Glass-Steagall Act as part of her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton made no mention of the Glass-Steagall Act in her economic policy address yesterday in New York. But economist and Clinton campaign adviser Alan Binder told Reuters that Clinton will not back any effort to restore the 1933 law that separated commercial banking from investment banking.
"You're not going to see Glass-Steagall," said Binder.
There is movement in the Senate to
reinstate Glass-Steagall:
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) are reintroducing legislation to revive the Glass-Steagall Act, which would force big banks to split their investment and commercial banking practices.
[...]
Warren and McCain, along with their cosponsors, Sens. Angus King (I-Maine) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), said in a statement that the legislation would make big banks that are "too big to fail" smaller and safer and minimize the likelihood of a government bailout.
The bill, which they first introduced in the last Congress, would separate traditional banking with checking and savings accounts from financial institutions that offer services such as investment banking, which are riskier.
"Despite the progress we've made since 2008, the biggest banks continue to threaten our economy," said Warren, an ardent Wall Street critic, in a statement. "The biggest banks are collectively much larger than they were before the crisis, and they continue to engage in dangerous practices that could once again crash our economy"
Even John McCain says that the repeal of Glass-Steagall led to "a culture of dangerous greed and excessive risk-taking" in the banking industry.
