Juggling Dynamite

Support for HR Bill 1489, the Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2011 is slowly (painfully slowly) growing. The Act was tabled in April 2011:

“To repeal certain provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and revive the separation between commercial banking and the securities business, in the manner provided in the Banking Act of 1933, the so-called `Glass-Steagall Act’, and for other purposes.”

Since then Bill 1489 has attracted 70 House sponsors. Here is the list of members who have endorsed this essential bill. If your representative has not yet pledged their support, CALL THEM AND URGE THEM TO DO THE RIGHT THING on this.

Reinstatement of the division between tax-payer backed banking and investment/speculation activities is a crucial step to restoring fiscal responsibility and health to the banking system in support of the real economy.

Financial conglomerates must choose to be a bank, or they can choose to be an investment dealer. But they can no longer be allowed to be all of these things wrapped up together and backed by the public purse. Their unfettered cross-selling and conflicts must end. We truly cannot afford it. Let’s get the leverage monster back in the bottle and get on with rebuilding the real economy.  It is long past time.

Mohamed El-Erian, PIMCO CEO & co-CIO, provides his perspective on stabilizing the euro zone; confronting the “fiscal cliff”; and whether the Fed should issue another round of easing. Here is a direct link.

With criminal charges rumored to be pending in the Libor scandal, those of us who have watched bankers run wild the past few years will believe it when we see it. One can hope…Eurasia Group Comparative Analytics Director Dan Alamariu discusses the political and global repercussions of the Libor-rigging scandal. Here is a direct link.