Wells Fargo Crimes Demand Glass-Steagall Justice

For Wall Street crimes like those exposed of Wells Fargo Bank, “Glass-Steagall justice” is thorough but enlightened — compared to the “Judge Roy Bean justice” millions of Americans would now like to see executed on that bank. Glass-Steagall justice is also much better for the U.S. economy and the nation’s future productivity. Don’t hang them; break them up and bankrupt all the casino operations, fire the management; give us back banks that can invest in industrial and scientific progress.

There is more yet to come out on this Wall Street champion, the “low-derivatives bank,” the “Warren Buffett bank,” claiming to be the only really solvent Wall Street giant. Unmanageable; criminal; dominated by its investment bank’s “culture”; caught defrauding hundreds of thousands of depositors, caught stealing from soldiers in its military loan program; sharing some characteristics of Bernie Madoff’s infamous operation, as a report just coming out will show.

At the hearings of the House Financial Services Committee Sept. 28, Janet Yellen was repeatedly asked about Glass-Steagall, by Committee members who oppose Glass-Steagall, but who acknowledged that “it’s being discussed everywhere.”

At the hearing on Sept. 29, Ranking Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters, who has been against Glass-Steagall, and had had repeated arguments and exchanges with Glass-Steagall activists since the Wells Fargo crimes were exposed, “broke out” on breaking up Wall Street banks. As American Banker covered her: “‘I have come to the conclusion that Wells Fargo should be broken up. It is too big to manage,'” the California Democrat said. ‘I am moving forward to break up Wells Fargo Bank.’…

“After the hearing, Waters told reporters that she plans on drafting legislation to break up Wells Fargo specifically, but other banks may be too big as well.

“We have to go through a process by which to design this legislation and go forward with it, but what you need to know is I am committed to breaking up Wells Fargo and if that leads us to a conclusion that all the big banks should be broken up…. They are too big to manage, said Waters, who added that [CEO John] Stumpf’s inability to answer lawmakers questions during the hearing led her to the determination. ‘He doesn’t know what is going on in this bank,’ Waters said.”

Other Committee members appeared to want Stumpf flogged and thrown in prison for life, reserving the death penalty — but EIR representatives have fought for Glass-Steagall justice, now, using LaRouchePAC leads and EIR material as well as other useful ammunition like Cornell Prof. Robert Hockett’s column in The Hill. Representative Waters had been made aware that even the Federal Reserve is now telling Congress to take hedge fund, private equity fund, and commodity operations away from banks.

Waters’ announced route to breaking up Wells, or Wall Street, is next to impossible. She knows Wall Street and Obama say, “Whatever you do, never again Glass-Steagall.” But Glass-Steagall is the justice the banksters’ crimes demand.