Forum Post: Without Glass-Steagall, the movement has no raison d'être.
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 10, 2011, 2:21 a.m. EST by NewDealDem
(6)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
It is abundantly clear that the most immediate and concise demand of the OWS demonstrations must be the immediate re-enactment, and strict enforcement, of the 1933 Glass-Steagall act, which separated legitimate commercial banking operations from the predatory and parasitical speculation of the Wall Street degenerates. If the movement, such as it is, cannot even muster this simple and obviously necessary demand, it is really nothing more than a juvenile temper tantrum writ large.
Naturally, the bulk of the American people are fed up with the abuses, excesses, and rampant criminality of the Wall Street oligarchs. The question is, will we organize ourselves to fight their parasitical predations in a coherent manner - necessarily meaning, at the very least, organization, program, and leadership? A strong, unified demand for the immediate and full re-implementation of the Glass-Steagall Act is necessarily the first step in answering this historically and existentially important question.
What good is re-enacting Glass-Steagall if the elite will just throw piles of money at our politicians and get it repealed again ?
If the OWS movement doesn't find a way to remove money from our government, It failed.
The way to fight is to stop paying for your Credit. Refuse the Credit System. This is the weapon to get the demands fulfilled. Stop paying your Mortgage, Car Loans, Insurance, Medical Bills, Student Loans, etc. Pull your money out of the Banks. Sell your stocks and bonds. Force the Banks to understand that we refuse their system of Governing and we want our Government back. Fight them with our only Weapon. Our money!
Personally i would just rather take away their power to control our government and essentially us. Taking money out of our banks would do nothing. It's not like they couldn't still afford a car that is worth more then you will make in your entire life.
If one person does this, then yes you are right. But the housing crash 4 years ago was because there was only a 3% increase in the foreclosure rate over previous norms. If thousands of us gather together and fight back against the Banks then they can't ignore us. They can't take all of our houses. We have to hurt them to make this change. If we don't then they can sit in their ivory towers looking down at our protest drinking champagne asking, " Why don't they eat cake?"
I think the part you are missing is this... The richest 400 people in this country have more money the the next 150 million people combined. I'm fairly confident they would be just fine if we took all of our money out of the banks and refused to pay our debts.
That is not what the housing market says. Imagine what would happen if another Housing Market collapse, coupled with a Credit Card default collapse, and a Car Loan collapse happened at the same time? Our economy is not strong enough to withstand that kind of pressure. Not now.
Please read: http://occupywallst.org/forum/can-we-end-the-fed/
This isn't an attack on the rich. There is nothing wrong with being rich. There is a problem with being rich and stealing from the poor. There is a problem with few people controlling the wealth, and to that end there is a problem when those who control the wealth are not helping their country and society progress.
How do the rich steal from the poor?
Think about it like this. Rich people put extra money in the banking system in order to earn more money without doing anything productive. On the other hand, poor people borrow money from the bank which they then pay interest on, so that they can grow the bank account of rich people. Much of the middle class inevitably become enslaved to their debt. Is that the free market? An endless cycle of debt? An economy which utilizes war to sustain itself. Fuck naw. That aint right. That aint American.
Whether you'd like to believe it or not, we are all enslaved to the mass debt that America has accrued over the years. What will we do? How can we break free?
End the Federal Reserve. It's unconstitutional and damn-fucking immoral.
Some say real free-market economics is the best system, although we've never really seen what that looks like. The Federal Reserve squashed any hopes of a free-market economy. In my opinion the most innovative, necessary, and implementable solution is a resource based economy.
Project Earth: A Resource Based Economy Explained http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDhSgCsD_x8
If you love capitalism, but hate the Federal Reserve, ask yourself this: if the current market is a failure, how can you erase the world's debt? We in the US owe the world everything. Not only are we indebted to the world literally, but we, the leaders of the free world, have been leading the destruction of the environment for how long? Do we not owe it to the world to fix it? We have much of the world's resources, we have the greatest education system in the world, what are we doing wrong?!?! Why do we not take it upon ourselves to construct a sustainable global economy that is based on the natural resources of the planet and use this global economy the repay our debt to the world? I know people love to fantasize about the wealthy and powerful America, but listen, we're indebted to the world! Time to grow a pair and pay the world back. And I know, a resource based economy is “Communist” and “Utopian” STOP ASSIGNING MEAINGLESS WORDS TO IDEAS. The system is a resource based economy, and it is neither communist nor utopian.
Certainly anger is justified, but without program, it is nothing more than emotion. It is not, never has been, and never will be enough to simply express rage; rage without a positive, programmatic alternative is a road to nowhere - at best. Actually, it's a road to continued domination by the Wall Street and City of London oligarchs; any movement which expresses itself solely as blind rage will surely be co-opted by them and their flunkies.
Tangible, meaningful, positive (even if incomplete) programmatic elements are essential to breaking the power of these despicable financiers. Believe me, I've talked to them, I've (to my shame) groveled before them for campaign contributions - suffice it to say that I know them, I know who they are and how they operate.
Likewise, I know how to fight them, and I know how to destroy them utterly. And our goal should be nothing less than than that - as FDR demanded of the fascists of the 1930's and 40's, so too must we rise to that level, and issue that same demand today - complete and unconditional surrender, or total and utter destruction.
Start with Glass-Steagall.
there is a Bill already in congress to reinstate glass-steal
(oach! my head, dang ceiling)
It keeps saving banks separate from investment in speculation trading
(speculation trading involves buy stocks in hopes someone will pay more for it later on, I believe)
which is a gamble
so the banks lost money to other banks or someone (???)
The current bill would not allow saving banks to invest in speculation
sounds like a good plan mayhaps a bit late
,
anyway,
this plan was already in motion before Wall Street was Ever Occupied
and while I root for it's passage
I think far greater steps need to be taken
No, without demanding an end to the Fed OWS goes nowhere. It's not that savings banks got involved in investments that's the problem. It's the BAILOUTS of gamblers by taxpayers (We the People) that's the problem.
I'm with you:
I SO avidly agree. This is the absolute first step, as well as repeal of any legislation which weakened the Glass-Steagall protections. The second step is to get lobbyist & corporate monies out of the political arena. I believe the means to do so is to lump ALL campaign contributions into 1 pot, then divvy it up in proportions equal to the the weight of the political office being sought. The greatest sum set aside to be divided equally between presidential candidates, so much for each Congress & Senate seat, on down to the lowliest local elections in the smallest US municipality. Not only will this ensure that seats can't essentially be bought by the corporate backers, but it will take the endless rounds of fundraising off of incumbents shoulders so that they might presumably muster better focus on the needs of their constituents.
In a country, when corruption is rooted in the hearts of it's leaders, no amount of regulations will prevail.
let's see. . . how many years has ANY group been able to get Glass-Steagall re-implemented? . . . and the downfall all started in the 1960's. come on what are YOU doing other than making snarky comments?
Glass-Steagall was repealed during the last year of Clintons presidency. With both Republicans and Democrats of our ONE party nation leading the way to our current devastation.
End the Federal Reserve!
i said the downfall started in the 1960's. if you know anything about Glass-Steagall you will surely know this is when the take down started happening. you probably can google info.
I would say it began on December 23, 1913 when most of Congress had departed for the Christmas Holiday, The Federal Reserve Act was passed without a quorum. This bill could not alter the Constitution but it was signed by Woodrow Wilson as if it were law. Things began accelerating in the 60's. JFK stood against TPTB on so many fronts. I just finished reading "JFK and the Unspeakable." It proves with government documents that subsets of the US government assassinated JFK.
i am speaking of Glass-Steagall which i believe was 1930 something-ish, 1933? are speaking of the causes of the great crash which prompted Glass-Steagall?
yes, Glass-Steagall was passed as a result of the great depression. It separated commercial banking (ie: savings accounts, checking accounts, loans etc.) from investment banking.
gotcha! oh hell, did i just Palin?
lol !
Monetary reform is the crucial missing element needed to move humanity away from a future dominated by fraud, warfare, and ugliness toward a world of justice, sustainability and beauty. the bulk of our money supply isn’t created by our government, but by private banks when they make loans. Through the Fed’s fractional reserve process what we use for money is issued as interest-bearing debt.
Our money system is controlled by private banks for their agendas, not for the common good. Our government has the power to issue money (Art.1, Sect.8) and spend it into circulation to promote the general welfare; including for infrastructure, education and health care; not misuse the money system for speculation as banks have historically done. Our lawmakers must now reclaim that power!
I agree Glass-Steagall act must be restored and dervative trading must be regulated. The "BANKSTER" mortgage fraud scheme could not have taken place with these laws in place.
Glad to hear it. I would further emphasize that the mortgage fraud scheme is merely one part of a long-running scheme to prop up a fundamentally bankrupt system. This system is often referred to by the nick-name "globalization" - that is, the exporting of production to cheap labor markets; the phenomenon of declining physical production in formerly productive economies, and the exponential growth of fictitious financial (e.g., paper/electronic) assets, which have not the slightest basis in reality.
Naturally and unfortunately, this dynamic - encouraged by the Wall Street and City of London speculators - has pitched the world into a rather extreme state of degradation currently.
Are you running for office somewhere? How can I vote for you?
One state in the Union has not been affected by the credit crunch that is causing so much heart ache across our nation. The state of State of North Dakota had a 1 billion dollar surplus last year and their unemployment was 4%.
http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/north_dakota.php
A "juvenile temper tantrum" may be all we really need. There are politicians who know what to do, they just need the moral authority to do it, and the anger of the people will give them that moral authority.
And even if the politicians don't figure it out, a leader will emerge from the chaos. Trust me. If the people are angry enough, the leader and the tactics will emerge.