Comments on: Will the US Reinstate Glass Steagall ?

By: Weekend Reading | Leigh Drogen

Weekend Reading | Leigh Drogen — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:07:26 +0000

[...] Glass-Steagall needs to be reinstated, I am 100% for it (The Big Picture) [...]

By: Thursday links: surging sentiment Abnormal Returns

Thursday links: surging sentiment Abnormal Returns — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:54:16 +0000

[...] Is there a chance Glass-Steagall will be reinstated? (Big Picture) [...]

By: cheese

cheese — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:04:13 +0000

Securitization killed the “wall” 30 years ago.

I predict “wall st.” will be all for this, and, any new legislation that seeks to “curb the excesses of speculation.”

How else are the going to get the incentives to create new products?

By: fusionbaby

fusionbaby — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:13:52 +0000

Theatre.
Theatre of the Absurd.
Posturing.
What they do will be ineffective.
No blood and guts intention to turn things around.

Wall St./Goldman Sachs/Banksters have control of the government and its currency. The power elite get rich and remain protected… the rest of America goes to the dogs.

By: Glass-Steagal Comeback: Maybe a Good Idea…Just Not Now | Wall Street

Glass-Steagal Comeback: Maybe a Good Idea…Just Not Now | Wall Street — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:03:56 +0000

[...] Will The US Reinstate Glass-Steagal (The Big Picture) [...]

By: Market Talk » Blog Archive » Links 12/16/2009

Market Talk » Blog Archive » Links 12/16/2009 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:14:58 +0000

[...] Move to reinstate Glass-Steagall picking up [...]

By: EAR

EAR — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:52:23 +0000

Gotta put my seatbelt on. Lemme just remove my bloody mess of a head from the windshield

By: constantnormal

constantnormal — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:02:57 +0000

dammit. I CLOSED the tag on the italics in the above post. stoopid WordLess.

By: constantnormal

constantnormal — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:02:05 +0000

As it appears that this thread has “matured”, I’ll not feel to bad in pushing a somewhat-off-topic diversion here (I’ll connect it at the end):

In today’s Rosenberg Breakfast with Dave newsletter (HIGHLY recommended), he makes the following observation:
“We are not sure if this is a well known “fact”, but the U.S. government has a record $2.5 trillion of its debt, including bills, bonds and notes, rolling over in 2010. That, my friends, is 35% of the outstanding level of Uncle Sam’s marketable obligations having to be refinanced in one single year. One has to wonder how the Fed is going to be able to raise interest rates in such a backdrop of massive rollovers; and if it doesn’t and the economy manages to exceed expectations or we get some inflation, how it is that the near-record steepness in the yield curve doesn’t continue in the coming year.”

Now this should not be a surprise, as the Treasury has been shortening the maturities of its debt issuance for many years now. I expect that 2011 will see a similar rollover in Treasury debt, and 2012 as well, and so on.

Putting aside the glaringly obvious question of — HOW IS THIS GOING TO BE ACCOMMODATED? — my question is why does Dave think the Fed is going to have trouble raising rates in such an environment. My thought would be that rates are headed sky-high to convince foreigners to purchase our $2.5T in short-term debt, that the Fed has already demonstrated this year the limits to which it can print money to buy Treasuries without utterly destroying the USD (at a far faster rate than they plan on doing, anyhow). The Fed’s problem would seem to me to be how to restrain the rise in rates, so as to not destroy this economy.

And to bring it all back in line with the thread topic — when the current financial industry is reduced to rubble — not merely the threat of this, as we experienced over the past 18 months, but the actual realization of it — then the stage will be set for bringing back Glass-Steagall, limiting bankster leverage, banning CDS, and perhaps instituting caps on executive compensation at publicly-owned corporations in general.

Until we are surrounded by the ruins of our existing corrupt and decadent financial industry, nothing will happen to change things.

By: blueoysterjoe

blueoysterjoe — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:46:04 +0000

John McCain, like 99% of other politicians, will make barking noises that sound like reform when a camera is in his face, but then he will slink away from true reform when it counts, mumbling something like “don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good” or “not enough tax cuts” or other similar barking noises. The fact that McCain is making these barking noises only shows that true reform now has momentum, enough to get the camera whores front and center, but nothing more.

Here’s how it works in Washington these days:

1. A good idea comes out.
2. It is ignored until all other ideas fail.
3. The “mavericks” start barking about it on the Sunday Bobblehead shows.
4. The idea gets traction.
5. It is introduced as an amendment to a bill, somewhere between Turnip Relief for Idaho and funding for the agricultural arts.
6. The amendment is ripped out at the last minute. The “mavericks” vote for it to get ripped out because it doesn’t cut taxes enough.
7. The US continues to decline.
8. China buys it.
9. We all start wearing funny hats.