G.O.P. Joins Democrats Urging Glass-Steagall’s Revival. (Don’t Hold Your Breath.)

New York Times ^ | JULY 19, 2016 | JEFF SOMMER

[expat_panama]

Attacking big banks is as American as apple pie. But it’s a new entry on this year’s Republican menu.

In a convention surprise, the Republicans inserted a plank in the party platform calling for the restoration of a Depression-era law, the Glass-Steagall Act, that separated commercial and investment banking.

The law was repealed in 1999 during the Clinton administration, with bipartisan support, at the behest of the big banks, which said they needed to combine their investment and commercial functions in order to compete on the global stage.

It didn’t turn out so well, of course...

...What the Republican Party did in adopting the platform plank on Monday night also seemed calculated to grab headlines. The 58-page draft of the official party platform included this one short sentence: “We support reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which prohibits commercial banks from engaging in high-risk investment.”

The Democratic platform draft, somewhat more expansive, embraces variety of measures “to downsize or break apart financial institutions when necessary to protect the public and safeguard financial stability.” One of those measures, it says, is “an updated and modernized version of Glass-Steagall and breaking up too-big-to-fail financial institutions that pose a systemic risk to the stability of our economy.”

Those pronouncements may not mean much in the real world, however...

...Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, embraces restoration of Glass-Steagall, but she also calls for strengthening Dodd-Frank and for strengthening the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which she helped create. The Republican platform calls for elimination of the bureau, and does so with zest, saying it is “the worst” part of Dodd-Frank, and was “deliberately designed to be a rogue agency.”

It is difficult to imagine that either party’s platform will alter public perceptions...

[expat_panama]

What we got here is that w/ politics everyone loves to shoot their mouths off w/o having any idea what their talking about.  This is an investment thread and we need to know what we're talking about --here's what I got and if anyone finds out anything else please share:

• Of the 34 sections that were in the Glass-Steagall Act, only four had anything to do w/ Banks and stocks,
• Only two were repealed by Clinton in 1999. 
• The remaining 32 Sections of the Glass-Steagall Act are still in effect and do not need to be restored, brought back, or reinstated. 
• The only parts that were taken out were dumb, they said that banks could not "associate" w/ brokerages --of course they did anyway but they just didn't call it that. 
• Clinton's '99 act didn't do a whole lot.
• People who think reinstating the GS act don't know what they're doing.

[cgbg]

I am not doing to debate the fine points of the legislation but we need to get banks and investment banks out of the derivatives and gambling business one way or the other—by legislation or by public riots—take your pick.

That said, after the banks deluge Congress with contributions it is highly unlikely that legislation will make that happen, regardless of the political talking points of both parties.

[9YearLurker]

You have no idea what you’re talking about.

It was the separation of investment and commercial banks, that should not have been repealed, and that was important and would have made a huge difference in 2008.

That is what everyone means when they refer to Glass-Steagall. The main point was not to have risky investment banking activity putting FDIC-insured commercial bank deposits at risk.

This is a smart position by the GOP. Dodd-Frank and invasive consumer credit bureau are drags on the free market and the economy. GS was a prudent safeguard on the same.

[ClearCase_guy]

Nicholas Nassim Taleb supports Glass-Steagall and that’s good enough for me.

[proxy_user]

Then who is going to supply derivatives to business customers who need to buy them?

[i_robot73]

Missing from the platform: Getting GOVT out of the (once) Free Market.

When taxpayers can no longer be used (illegally) as piggy banks...

AKA: How ‘bout following the F* Constitution for-once/in-a-while?

Where’s the ‘Abolish the DoEd’? Damn sure they won’t dare say a DAMN thing about O’Care, PP or exec. amnesty.

[expat_panama]

Good morning! Stock indexes paused/dropped a fraction yesterday in higher volume and profit takers took over.  Same sort of thing for gold and silver (now at $1,326.72 and $19.84) --yeah we're down a bit but nobody ever went broke taking a profit.

This morning futures see metals up, stocks mixed, and reports limited to this morning's MBA Mortgage Index and Crude Inventories.

The first headline here is what's catching my interest:

My Fellow Americans, More Volatility Lies Ahead - Doug Kass, RealMoney
Risky Investments Have Place in a Portfolio - Simon Constable, U.S. News
GOP Plan to Break Up Big Banks Is Just Bizarre - Cyrus Sanati, Fortune
Fed's Mission Is Accomplished, Why No Change? - Conor Sen, Bloomberg
Why Trump Must Pivot to the Economy - Peter Morici, Washington Times
Trump's Protectionism Bad for USA, Bad for Party - Editorial, USA Today
Little to Show From the Obama Recovery - Paul Brandus, MarketWatch
'Criminally Overlooked' Books on Economics/Finance - Lawrence Hamtil
The Dumbest Idea in Politics and Economics - Thomas Sowell,Creators.com

[expat_panama]

...not doing to debate the fine points of the legislation but we need to get banks and investment banks out of the derivatives...

--and my guess is that the fact that banks have never been in the derivatives to begin with is just a mere 'fine point'.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Glass-Steagall - meh. Dodd Frank needs to be shredded in little bitty pieces, lit afire, compacted, zapped with a LASER and blown to smithereens.

[expat_panama]

• Of the 34 sections that were in the Glass-Steagall Act, only four had anything to do w/ Banks and stocks,
• Only two were repealed by Clinton in 1999. 
• The remaining 32 Sections of the Glass-Steagall Act are still in effect and do not need to be restored,

  You have no idea what you’re talking about.

  --and my having no idea what I'm talking about does not change the fact that 32 sections of the original 1933 Glass-Steagall Act are still in effect and the two that got ditched didn't make any difference.

[expat_panama]

Dodd Frank needs to be shredded

So that makes three of us --you, me and Trump-- that want to dump Dodd-Frank.

[expat_panama]

Where’s the ‘Abolish the DoEd’?

There's hope.  This other article (The long and the short of presidential candidates’ websites) was complaining about how Trump's website (unlike Hillary's) did not even mention education --other than to call for ending the DoEd.

[9YearLurker]

I stand by my statement.

You clearly have never worked in the banking industry.

[expat_panama]

Nicholas Nassim Taleb supports Glass-Steagall and that’s good enough for me.

Ah.  Yeah, a lot of work can be avoided by simply thinking what some nice man says instead of actually going to all the work of looking at Glass-Steagall with all those pages w/ soo many words and no pictures.

[expat_panama]

my having no idea what I'm talking about does not change the fact that 32 sections of the original 1933 Glass-Steagall Act are still in effect and...

You clearly have never worked in the banking industry.

--and my never having worked in the banking industry doesn't change what's in the Glass-Steagall Act either.  

Is there a chance that we can get together on the fact that the nature of banking laws are not affected by my being a bad guy.

[ClearCase_guy]

Unlike you, I HAVE worked in the banking industry. I understand this stuff well enough to know that you are clueless.

[expat_panama]

Unlike you, I HAVE worked in the banking industry

--and that's absolutely lovely but this Glass-Steagall debate is serious and is not affected by how much God loves you more than He loves me. 

This is a point that you and 9YearLurker have in common and my thinking is expanding to see the nature of the mindset as being the real problem the nation faces.  It's the fact that too many people love to strut their stuff so much that they've got no time to stop what hurts America.

[Rockingham]

Perhaps the best argument in favor of GS is that commercial banking and investment banking are different lines of business that need not just different regulatory treatment but also require divergent business skills, philosophies, and personalities. Where Main Street needs banks run by sober minded professionals with regular habits who are content with unspectacular profits from fees and securitized loans, Wall Street investment banks need buccaneers who are hungry to take risks for the sake of outsize gains.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Mark my words....eventually this country is going to elect the second coming of Hitler on a promise to punish the bankers.

[cgbg]

The investment bankers have gotten way too big, control too much economic policy and political decisions, and taxpayers are effectively on the hook for any systemic risks they create.

Too big to fail means they must be shut down—this is a no brainer.