Restoring Glass-Steagall likely campaign rhetoric [View all]

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Restoring Glass-Steagall likely campaign rhetoric
Paul Brian
The Hill

Is President-elect Donald Trump really going to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act as he's previously said? The Depression-era laws limit the risks that commercial banks can take and put up dividers between investment and commercial banking.

Trump’s support for Glass-Steagall was fairly vague in the election, but did exist. On the trail in October, he told a crowd he wanted a modern, 21st-Century version of Glass-Steagall, emphasizing that it would be especially aimed at “helping African-American businesses get the credit they need.”

Indeed, Glass-Steagall was also an important part of Sanders’ platform that had supporters (and opponents) on various areas of the left and right.

For Team Trump, bringing it back up was a way to stick it to the Clintons and Wall Street all at once.

However, like the “lock her up” chants and the claim that he’d appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton, restoring Glass-Steagall was merely a political tactic rather than a firm position. As Trump said recently on his victory tour, “now we don’t care.”

As CNBC reported, skepticism was high that such a law could be passed even if Trump tried.

“No one is actually worried this will become law,” one banker said.