Glass-Steagall Legislation Re-Introduced in U.S. Congress
It’s now official – Joe Biden has announced he will seek a second term as President in 2024. That despite his 80 years of age, his dismal approval ratings and the lack of enthusiasm among the party’s grass roots constituencies. Many of the latter hope for a return of the Democrats to the policies associated with former Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, but so far, only the LaRouche Organization has seriously campaigned for such an approach.
Their organizing has led to one crucial opening, which is Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur’s legislation to rein in the power of Wall Street through enacting a strict separation of banking activities. The candidacy of Robert Kennedy Jr. for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, if it takes hold in spite of his controversial positions, could bring other aspects of the JFK policy to the fore.
Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat representing Ohio, reintroduced on April 19 her bill to reinstate essential provisions of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, including the restoration of the separation between commercial and investment banking. A statement posted on her website prominently notes: “The legislation has been endorsed by the Schiller Institute and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).”
It continues: “‘The 2008 financial crash nearly took down our entire economy and led to the great recession wiping out the income and savings for many Americans. The recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in California and Signature Bank in New York echoes the 2008 collapse with speculators squeezing through every regulatory keyhole to find an avenue to game the system,’ said Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur. ‘In 2023, here we are again, watching bank runs, failures, and massive buyouts. Wall Street has proven that it cannot control itself, and it is only a matter of time before it steers America into the next financial crisis.’” The statement goes on to outline the major measures provided for in the bill.
As for Robert Kennedy Jr., in formally announcing his bid for the presidency on April 19, he denounced the merger of state and corporate power, as well as the role of the military-industrial complex in pushing wars and the failure of the regime-change operations the United States has run in the Middle East, which have backfired. On China, he pointed out that in the last 20 years, while the U.S. has been all over the world destroying bridges, roads, ports, and hospitals, Beijing has been building just such infrastructure, at home and abroad. China is doing what my father and uncle wanted us to do, he said. (Kennedy Jr. is the son of Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 during his presidential campaign, just five years after his brother, President John Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas.)
