To: President Donald Trump, The United States House of Representatives, and The United States Senate

Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act

Reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act immediately.

We are in the midst of the greatest transfer of wealth to a scarce few individuals and banks, all of it being done within the boundaries of laws that the bankers themselves have either written or paid well to have written. Glass-Steagall prevented this egregious behavior and must be reinstated.

Why is this important?

Provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act directly supported a more level economic playing field and a six-decade rise of a more egalitarian financial system and strong middle class. It did so by limiting the power of financial institutions. Its 1999 weakening, permitting mergers of commercial and investment banks, ushered in the current era of reckless and potentially ruinous banking practices which, in 2008, brought the USA and the world to the brink of financial disaster. Despite notable legislative efforts to correct this, intensive lobbying from the banking industry has seen to it that essentially nothing has changed. The economy remains at great risk.

Our banking system must be brought back to serving the people first while reliably sustaining the economy that supports us all, rather than abetting any further drain on its lifeblood by the wealthiest among us.

Stability in America depends upon a viable middle class. The Glass-Steagall Act provided excellent protections for that class and the economy as a whole. While it will require updating to better function in the modern world, its reinstatement will go a long way to provide a powerful economic safety net that will more reliably limit ongoing risk to the strongest economy in the world.