Trump says he's open to bringing back Glass Steagall

[Hydrogen]

President Donald Trump said he’s actively considering a break up of giant Wall Street banks, giving a push to efforts to revive a Depression-era law separating consumer and investment banking.

“I’m looking at that right now,” Trump said of breaking up banks in a 30-minute Oval Office interview with Bloomberg News. “There’s some people that want to go back to the old system, right? So we’re going to look at that.”

Trump also said he’s open to increasing the U.S. gas tax to fund infrastructure development, in a further sign that policies unpopular with the Republican establishment are under consideration in the White House. He described higher gas taxes as acceptable to truckers -- “I have one friend who’s a big trucker,” he said -- as long as the proceeds are dedicated to improving U.S. highways.

In other news, Trump said he’d be willing to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, against the recommendations of his political advisers, to avert a military confrontation with the U.S. adversary. He also said that a Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act would protect Americans with pre-existing conditions at least as well as Obamacare.

Glass-Steagall

During the presidential campaign, Trump called for a “21st century” version of the 1933 Glass-Steagall law that required the separation of consumer and investment banking. The 2016 Republican party platform also backed restoring the legal barrier, which was repealed in 1999 under a financial deregulation signed by then-President Bill Clinton.

A handful of lawmakers blame the repeal for contributing to the 2008 financial crisis, an argument that Wall Street flatly rejects. Trump couldn’t unilaterally restore the law; Congress would have to pass a new version.

Trump officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn, have offered support for bringing back some version of Glass-Steagall, though they’ve offered scant details on an updated approach. Both Mnuchin and Cohn are former bankers who worked for Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

The KBW Bank Index of 24 major U.S. lenders had climbed as much as 1.2 percent before Trump’s comment, before dropping about 1 percentage point. It soon recovered most of that, and was up 0.9 percent as of 1:07 p.m. in New York. Firms including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp., the nation’s two largest banks, were among companies that swooned.

The Glass-Steagall law essentially split banking into two categories: deposit-taking companies backed by taxpayers that primarily made loans to businesses and consumers, and investment banks and insurers that trade and underwrite securities and create or focus on other complex instruments. Severing those businesses would prevent Americans’ nest eggs from flowing into more volatile capital markets, Congress reasoned at the time.

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-01/trump-says-he-s-considering-moves-to-break-up-wall-street-banks

Looks like Trump's on the right track.

Glass Steagall which was passed to prevent circumstances causing the Great Depression should never have been repealed under Bill Clinton's administration.

[BillyBobZorton]

I find it contradicting how Trump may actually give us an ETF for bitcoin, but meanwhile he is signing anti privacy laws which can pretty much kill any hopes of internet privacy since he would put limitations at ISP level.

He is a disappointment and if I voted him I would be pissed ever since he showed his true face: he hates internet privacy so fuck him.

[LeGaulois]

It would not prevent the possibility of a new financial crisis. Among the more high-profile bankruptcies of the 2008 crisis, Lehman Brothers was a pure investment Bank, remember.  As well he wants to remove the "Dodd-Frank" law passed under Obama to limit speculative activities of banks after the financial crisis

[BillyBobZorton]

It would not prevent the possibility of a new financial crisis. Among the more high-profile bankruptcies of the 2008 crisis, Lehman Brothers was a pure investment Bank, remember.  As well he wants to remove the "Dodd-Frank" law passed under Obama to limit speculative activities of banks after the financial crisis

There''s no possible way to avoid the coming correction of the financial markets (call it correction, crash or whatever you want). There's just no physical way to avoid this correction, other than do what the rest of politicians have been doing: printing more money in hopes to delay the big crash enough so it doesn't happen during their own term.

It requires a brave man to take the big correction because his reputation will be destroyed since people hate reality, and the reality of things is the economy is fucked all those trillions of debt, it's just ridiculous, and nobody wants to admit it.

[Hazir]

I find it contradicting how Trump may actually give us an ETF for bitcoin, but meanwhile he is signing anti privacy laws which can pretty much kill any hopes of internet privacy since he would put limitations at ISP level.

He is a disappointment and if I voted him I would be pissed ever since he showed his true face: he hates internet privacy so fuck him.

Trump is a living contradiction. Sometimes he is brilliant and amazing and in the very next moment he seems to be real moron.
I can't figure him out, that is why until he will be done with presidency I won't judge him.

Internet privacy is a joke anyway, your every move is monitored. Do you think that Hillary would be better and won't allow limiting internet privacy?

[olubams]

The old law as its own advantage as well as its deficiencies my won position is that their functions should actually be separated so they can focus on what they are to do. But today, we still have some banks specifically running investment banking such as Goldman Sachs. But I feel the deficiencies of the is what should be looked into and improved upon rather than absolute repeal.