attribution: REUTERS
A new bipartisan effort would help extend the job started with the Dodd-Frank financial reform law passed in 2010. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and John McCain (R-AZ) want to bring back Glass-Steagall, the depression-era banking reform that separated commercial and investment banking.
Warren and McCain, along with their cosponsors, Sens. Angus King (I-Maine) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), said in a statement that the legislation would make big banks that are "too big to fail" smaller and safer and minimize the likelihood of a government bailout. The bill, which they first introduced in the last Congress, would separate traditional banking with checking and savings accounts from financial institutions that offer services such as investment banking, which are riskier.
"Despite the progress we've made since 2008, the biggest banks continue to threaten our economy," said Warren, an ardent Wall Street critic, in a statement. "The biggest banks are collectively much larger than they were before the crisis, and they continue to engage in dangerous practices that could once again crash our economy."
McCain said the repeal of Glass-Steagall led to "a culture of dangerous greed and excessive risk-taking" in the banking industry.
Given that the current congressional leadership is more interested in repealing Dodd-Frank a piece at a time, it's not too likely that this bill will advance in the McConnell regime. But that sure would make it a great issue for the 2016 campaign, both congressional and presidential. It would be one more chance for Hillary Clinton to create some distance between her and Bill Clinton, who signed the 1999 Glass-Steagall repeal into law.