Senators Introduce 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act

Elizabeth Warren, Maria Cantwell, John McCain and Angus King introduced the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act into the US Senate yesterday. The bill does not yet have a number, but the four Senators, who introduced the same legislation into the Senate during the last session, released a press release yesterday, accompanied by the text of the 36-page bill and a one-page fact sheet.

Maria Cantwell was quoted in the release that “Americans have suffered enough from big banks making them their deep pockets for reckless behavior. It’s time to separate commercial from investment banking.”

Elizabeth Warren was quoted that

“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. The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act will rebuild the wall between commercial and investment banking and make our financial system more stable and secure.”

John McCain added,

“Since core provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act were repealed in 1999, shattering the wall dividing commercial banks and investment banks, a culture of dangerous greed and excessive risk-taking has taken root in the banking world. Big Wall Street institutions should be free to engage in transactions with significant risk, but not with federally insured deposits.”

It is no coincidence that the Senate bill was finally introduced at a moment when the entire trans-Atlantic financial system is on the edge of disintegration, with the eurozone on the verge of break-up, and with US too-big-to-fail banks now sitting on $26.5 trillion in gambling debt, subject to taxpayers bailout, according to a recent report from the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank—not to mention the $2 quadrillion in global derivatives that have taken over the trans-Atlantic financial system.

Senators Introduce 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act

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