Salon Attacks Wall Street’s “Political Shakedown” of Glass-Steagall Democrats

Helga Zepp-LaRouche went right to the heart of Wall Street’s “extortion” of Democrats in her Saturday, March 28 presentation to the Schiller Institute conference in Manhattan by calling on participants and all citizens to not allow JPMorgan, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America to make good on their secret meeting plan to stop Glass-Steagall.

On Sunday, liberal publication Salon identifies Wall Street’s evil design in an article titled, “Wall Street’s Political Shakedown,” which identifies Glass-Steagall as one of the main targets of Wall Street’s plan.

Luke Brinker, Salon’s deputy politics editor, says that the money threat is in essence a criminal act that “puts the lie to Chief Justice John Roberts’ apparently straight-faced assertion, writing his opinion in the Citizens United case, that campaign contributions are not intended to influence lawmakers’ official duties.”

“Yet, we have an industry that may well cut off a political party if it does not jettison proposals like breaking up Too Big To Fail institutions, reinstating the Glass-Steagall law separating commercial and investment banking, and reining in unscrupulous speculation,” Brinker writes.

He never mentions Martin O’Malley’s push for Glass-Steagall, but says the the policies Wall Street hates and fears are identified with the “Warren wing” of the Democratic Party, which is “far from dominant.” He warns that if Wall Street has its way, the Senate leadership—and even potentially the next Democratic presidential candidate—will be put in by Wall Street money because of the “Democratic neoliberals who have proven all too eager to forge an unholy alliance with the malefactors of great wealth,” and that “this Wall Street shakedown will only redouble their [the neoliberal Dems’] commitment to keep the financial powers-that-be placated.”