Sunday, May 20, 2012

UPDATE: Glass-Steagall


We’ve seen all the headlines: JP Morgan Chase took risky bets and lost two billion dollars in a matter of weeks.
CEO Jamie Dimon called the bets “poorly reviewed" and even "sloppy." He added, "We will learn from it, we will fix it, and we will move on."  
Frankly, I don’t think we should just trust Wall Street banks to regulate themselves. Because as we learned during the 2008 financial crisis, they are not just taking risks with their own money -- they are taking risks with the whole economy.
That's why today, with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, I'm calling on Congress to put Wall Street reform back on the agenda and to begin by passing a new Glass-Steagall Act. This was the law that stopped investment banks from gambling away people's life savings for decades -- until Wall Street successfully lobbied to have it repealed in 1999.
A new Glass-Steagall would separate high-risk investment banks from more traditional banking. It would allow Wall Street to take risks, but not by dipping into the life savings and retirement accounts of regular people.

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