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Hoyer: Bring Back Glass-Steagall


This is a pretty stunning admission:

“As someone who voted to repeal Glass-Steagall, maybe that was a mistake,” Hoyer told reporters.

A renewal of the 1933 law “is certainly under discussion” by House members, Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, told reporters in Washington. The Glass-Steagall law was repealed in 1999.

The real question is this: is it too late? It's pretty clear the Democrats in Congress and in the White House are feeling the very real populist rage in the country about the Great Swindle of 2008-9. But I think more than anything, right now, the Democrats and the White House are feeling very, very betrayed by the bankers. Especially after they literally stood up the president today.

If Democrats like Hoyer are on board with something like this, well, it may not be too late.

Repeat after me: too big to fail, is too big to exist. Feels good to say it, doesn't it Stenny?


Sean Paul Kelley December 15, 2009 - 2:28pm
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( categories: Global Financial Crisis )

not sure I see any 'there' there...

Dems feeling betrayed by bankers?

How can they feel betrayed by their 'employers'? Surely one would think the politicians would know the Banks, or Businesses in general are not in business (or politics) for the Public Good.

"The business of Business is business"--how quickly this (reduntant) adage is forgotten.

-5.75,-4.05
"God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time." -- Robin Williams

justadood December 15, 2009 - 4:02pm
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Well, betrayed in the sense

that the banks are so blatantly showing off and bragging. They haven't tried to hide the fact that its still pretty much business-as-usual from the general public.

The Dems are then feeling betrayed because the banks were supposed to pretend that things had changed and that the Dems were actually enacting meaningful reforms. Instead, the populist rage that is growing due to the banks' continued bad behavior (in the form of bonuses, etc.) is putting immense pressure on the Dems and hurting their electoral chances. It's like they and the banks committed a major heist, and now the banks are openly bragging about it to all their friends and relatives. If you've seen any mob/heist movies, you know how that could eventually end...

The funny thing is that this might actually push through some real (though still paltry) reform. The banks may finally be sabotaging themselves by creating the very pressure that leads to reform.

Bolo December 15, 2009 - 4:56pm
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Hubris

A wonderful spectator sport.

Synoia December 15, 2009 - 5:39pm
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Mistake!

“As someone who voted to repeal Glass-Steagall, maybe that was a mistake,” Hoyer told reporters.

Wow you would thought that the bankers would have failed to make sure they did the right thing? Oh right they did, lined the pockets lobbist/congress and their own.

I agree with Synoia

I have too say it's 90% chance that G/S in any form will never come back and I hope I'm wrong.

jo6pac December 15, 2009 - 6:54pm
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I call BS

This is more posturing and BS, will not happen. If anything, it would be brought back in name with key portions missing due to "circumstances of the modern world". This is absolute crap, meant to appease the increasingly aware and angry hordes with empty words. They will sell out or flat out ditch this effort at the first sign of bankers' giving them a crust of bread.

Health Care isn't a special case, it's the format for all policy going forward. I can't imagine getting G-S reinstated short of another global total financial meltdown.

zot23 December 15, 2009 - 8:02pm
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Not likely

I don't have much faith any more that Obama is capable of taking a firm stand on anything. If he expresses a desire to reform the banking system, and the big bankers object, and Joe Lieberman whines and John McCain goes on every Sunday talk show in the solar system to talk about how this is a body-blow against all that Western Civilization holds dear, Obama will wilt like spinach in a hot skillet, and we'll wind up with "reform" that empowers the big bankers to confiscate the savings of every person who makes less than $250k a year, in order to fund their bonuses. Obama and Max Baucus and Ben Nelson will call it the greatest advance in America's history. And the Beltway Bozos who run this farce of a political party will scratch their heads in dumbfounded wonder when they lose both houses of Congress in 2010 and the White House two years later, when rank-and-file Democrats take vacations from politics on the first Tuesday in November.

dricey December 15, 2009 - 8:28pm
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