Occupy Toronto
26 July 2012
by Michael Holloway
Sanford Weill, financier turned banker – CEO of Citigroup (retired) – suggests in a CNBC interview on Wednesday, July 25th 2012, that finance and banking should be split again – like the 1933, Glass-Steagall Act mandated. He also says derivatives should be traded on their own exchange – so innovative vehicles (like credit default swaps) are ‘marked’ in a transparent market place. He also prescribes that all banking transactions be transparent. (!!!)
The CNBC interviewer Rebecca Quick points out in passing that the too big to fail law, Dodd-Frank (intended to replace Glass-Steagall in the aftermath of the 2007/2008 collapse) has been ineffective.
Sanford ‘Sandy’ Weill goes on to explain (in ‘neo-liberal-ese’) that, if another country can’t yet lead the world, then the U.S. has to do it – but this current banking system is hindering that hegemony, that order; so let us (the conspiracy nutters like to call the ‘us’ in this context “The Illuminati” – but really it’s just (just) a collusion between global sized corporations, financial institutions, big banks and governments – aka G-20) … so let ‘us’ agree on Real Regulation – this time not to protect the American Taxpayer, or American Business – as Glass-Steagall did – but rather to protect the Global American Empire Project (‘Global Economy’ in neo-liberal speak).
Very Interesting.
I’d back that reform – it could save civilization.
Here’s a snippet of the write up of the story from Kevin Drum at Mother Jones:
Sandy Weill Joins Occupy Wall Street Movement
In 1985, after he was forced out of American Express, Sandy Weill went on an acquisitions tear. He took over a consumer finance company, then acquired an insurance company, then a retail brokerage, then Travelers Insurance, then another brokerage, an investment bank, and finally a merger of his entire empire with Citigroup. But that last step required more than money. Merging an investment bank with a commercial bank required a repeal of Glass-Steagall, the New Deal law that had broken up commercial and investment banks in the first place. So Weill went to work, and a year later Glass-Steagall was gone. Sandy Weill was, in a very real sense, the midwife of repeal, or, as he preferred to call himself at the time, “The Shatterer of Glass-Steagall.”
For years Weill has denied that repeal played any role in the 2008 financial crisis. Today, it appears that he’s changed his mind:
Weill did a 180 on CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning, saying that he now believes big banks — like, presumably, Citigroup — should be broken up:
What we should probably do is go and split up investment banking from banking, have banks be deposit takers, have banks make commercial loans and real estate loans, have banks do something that’s not going to risk the taxpayer dollars, that’s not too big to fail.
Sandy Weill advocating for the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall is among the biggest flip-flops imaginable. (In political terms, it would be akin to Rick Santorum announcing he was becoming a GLAAD spokesman.) And when Weill called for a bank breakup this morning, CNBC’s incredulous anchors gave him a chance to walk back what they assumed was a spur-of-the-moment gaffe. But Weill didn’t budge:
I’m suggesting that they be broken up so that the taxpayer will never be at risk, the depositors won’t be at risk, the leverage of the banks will be something reasonable.
..read the rest at Mother Jones… – http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/sandy-weill-joins-occupy-wall-street-movement
Here’s the Video:
Wall Street Legend Sandy Weill: Break Up the Big Banks – CNBC (via New York Magazine)
References:
Mother Jones | “Sandy Weill Joins Occupy Wall Street Movement” | by Kevin Drum | Wed Jul. 25, 2012 – http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/sandy-weill-joins-occupy-wall-street-movement
Video embed via New York Magazine, “Former Citigroup Boss Goes H.A.M. on Big Banks, Advocates Return of Glass-Steagall” by Kevin Roose [what’s H.A.M. mean?] – http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/07/sandy-weill-goes-ham-on-big-banks.html
CNBC | “Wall Street Legend Sandy Weill: Break Up the Big Banks” | Wednesday, 25 Jul 2012 | by CNBC.com – http://www.cnbc.com/id/48315170