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Published: Monday, Mar. 31, 2003
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by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. — March 25, 2003
The immediate situation of the U.S. is summed up as follows: At this moment, as I had forewarned you in 1999-2000, we are plunging into a world depression comparable to, but wors e than that of the Herbert Hoover Depression of 1929-1933. As I forewarned you in an address, broadcast at the beginning of 2001, new would-be Adolf Hitlers have now appeared, this time inside the U.S.A. Those would-be Hitlers now threaten the whole world with the kinds of wars for which the world later hung Nazi leaders, at Nuremberg: the new Hitlers from inside the U.S.A. and Blair's government, who act exactly as Hitler threatened Czechoslovakia in 1938, and invaded Poland in 1939.
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The pivotal feature of that warfare, into which an already bankrupt U.S. has just been plunged, is the de facto usurpation of the function of a still-sitting President by Halliburton's Vice President Cheney, and by a gang of his organized-crime-linked lackeys polluting not only the Departments of Defense and State, but also polluting, and virtually castrating elected and other leaders of the nominal opposition, the Democratic Party.
Ironically, but not accidentally, the present war-like situation in the Department of Defense, including the public rug-chewing exhibitions by Secretary Rumsfeld, reminds today's serious historians of the way in which Adolf Hitler and his Roman Legions-modelled SS, ultimately destroyed that German military which would-be Caesar Hitler's gang feared and hated so intensely.
All too obviously, the leading war-makers inside the Bush Administration today are mere lackeys, nasty pimps like the Leporello of Mozart's famous opera. These real-life Leporellos, such as the politically pimpish Wolfowitz and Ashcroft, were spawned, chiefly, by Chicago University and associated circles of a prominent fascist ideologue, the late Professor Leo Strauss. This Strauss was a follower of the Carl Schmitt who crafted the law under which Hitler became dictator of Germany; so, are Strauss's ardent followers inside the Bush Administration today.
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The second prong of re-regulation of the financial system that was passed as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Hundred Days of New Deal legislation, following the Securities Bill, was the Glass-Steagall Act, also known as The Banking Act of 1933. The origins of this bill went back to 1932, or earlier, but it was only under the conditions of the re-assertion of the principle of the General Welfare, which FDR's leadership represented, that it could be passed. The battle over the bill's provisions raged throughout the entire spring of 1933, before final passage in June, but we devote this column to its provisions, because it directly follows upon the determination of FDR's Administration to crack down on the corruption in the financial sector.
Glass-Steagall split commercial banking from brokerage/investment banking. Any financial institution engaging in both activities either had to split into two entities, or forego one or the other activity. No commercial bank was allowed to own an investment bank, and vice versa. Sections 16 and 21 of the Act stated that no commercial bank could engage in the business of "issuing, underwriting, selling, or distributing, at wholesale or retail, or through syndicate participation, stock, bonds, debentures, notes or other securities." (The exception is that commercial banks could sell and underwrite U.S. government bonds.) No commercial bank could underwrite, deal with, trade, or possess for its own account, securities—since that was the domain of the investment banks. Conversely, no investment bank could take individual small customer deposits, which was the domain of the commercial banks.
To counter some of the other practices of the 1920s, the bill also forbade any bank officer from borrowing from his own institution.
Provisions Not Arcane
This enforced separation of banking activities may at first seem arcane; but it actually addresses two very important matters. First, if a single institution is allowed to carry out commercial banking and investment banking (and insurance) under one roof, a very great amount of power is concentrated in that institution's hands. Today, if the repeal of Glass-Steagall were combined with the repeal of the McFadden Act—which forbids interstate banking—the United States could rapidly consolidate to only 15 to 20 super-institutions, controlling every aspect of America's financial life. Such a process was advancing rapidly in the 1920s, and Glass-Steagall helped to halt it.
Second, by placing different pools of money in a single institution—pools from commercial banking, from investment banking, from insurance—one is creating the temptation that that institution will commingle the funds, and use them for whatever purposes it pleases. This violates a basic tenet of banking. A commercial bank is, by definition, simply a deposit-taking institution. An individual who puts his money into a savings or checking account in a commercial bank, expects some interest, but is putting the funds there for safe-keeping, not for investment, which is the purpose of an investment bank/brokerage house. The individual does not want the funds commingled with other funds without permission.
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Feature:
Conference To Stop War With Eurasian Development Strategy
by Nancy Spannaus and Gabriele Liebig
'This is the first international conference since the war started, which is clearly taking a stand against this unjust war,' said Iraqi journalist Dr. Mustafa Ali of Al-Arab newspaper, in a plenary discussion. He was describing the March 21-23 conference of the Schiller Institute, 'How To Reconstruct a Bankrupt World,' held in Bad Schwalbach, Germany.
Bad Schwalbach Declaration
'This War Must Be Stopped'
The following emergency declaration was passed on March 23, 2003 by the participants in the International Conference of the Schiller Institute in Bad Schwalbach, Germany, coming from 45 countries...
Helga Zepp-LaRouche
The Eurasian Land-Bridge Concept, The Answer to the Strategic Crisis
Mrs. LaRouche delivered her keynote to the panel on the Eurasian Land-Bridge and the Strategic Triangle of the Bad Schwalbach conference, on March 22, 2003.
Academician Vladimir S. Myasnikov
The Strategic Triangle of Russia, China, and India: the Eurasian Aspect
Academician Myasnikov is Deputy Director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His presentation to the Schiller Institute International Con-ference at Bad Schwalbach, was part of the March 22 panel on Eurasian development keynoted by Helga Zepp-LaRouche.
Economics:
Will Argentina Take The LaRouche Option?
by Cynthia R. Rush
Argentina's Presidential elections are less than a month away, set for April 27; and as citizens of that nation observe the choices before them, there is, on the surface, little cause for hope. No candidate among the several running, offers a way out of the economic devastation still afflicting this once prosperous nation, the International Monetary Fund's claims of 'an incipient economic recovery' notwithstanding.
A Eurasian Perspective For Germany's Economy
by Rainer Apel
Amidst the crisis provoked globally by the Anglo-American war against Iraq, German policymakers are discussing—privately and not-so-privately—the need for expanded Eurasian cooperation.
Airlines Seek Federal Help To SurviveWar
by Anita Gallagher
The chicken-hawks behind the Iraq war can count among their 'Week One' victims, the U.S. airlines and their employees, who took a 10% cut in air traffic and 10,000 layoffs in the week ending March 23, according to the Air Transport Association.
International:
UN Focus of Growing Revolt at Imperial War of Aggression
by Mike Billington
An emergency Open Session of the United Nations Security Council began at 3:00 p.m. on March 26, and continued through March 27, allowing for a general debate by all United Nations members on the invasion of Iraq.
Amelia Robinson Again Tours Italy
by Liliana Gorini
As Europe and the world say a clear 'no' to the U.S. war against Iraq, which goes against the U.S. Constitution and international law, President Bush will have to back down. This was the message brought to Italy by Amelia Boynton Robinson, heroine of the American Civil Rights movement.
Pakistan's Musharraf Walks a Tightrope
by Ramtanu Maitra
The rope on which Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is balancing himself and his country is getting less stable every day, as the United States impatiently is demanding more and more help from Islamabad to neutralize al-Qaeda, Taliban, and Afghan mujahideen leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, to ease the worsening security situation in Afghanistan.
'Prince of Darkness' Richard Perle Demands 'Regime Change' of UN Charter
by William Jones
'Prince of Darkness' Richard Perle, in the week before scandals forced him to quit as chairman of the Defense Policy Board (DPB) on March 27, delivered arrogant speeches laying out the demands for imperial 'perpetual war' across the globe, which is the actual policy of the chicken-hawks behind the Iraq invasion. Perle also called for a new and revised United Nations Charter which would make U.S./British-dictated 'regime changes' into UN policy.
Ashcroft Steps Up Secret Surveillance
by Edward Spannaus
Giving a recent briefing on U.S. Middle East policy at Washington's Georgetown University, Edward Peck, the U.S. Chief of Mission in Iraq in the 1980s, cited President Bush's repeated statements that 'the terrorists hate us because of our freedom.' Peck suggested that whoever believes this, should strongly support Attorney General John Ashcroft's policy— to remove the cause of that hatred by taking away those freedoms.
House Slash-and-Burn 'War Budget' Passed
by Carl Osgood
Capitol Hill finally reacted to the reality of the Iraq war on March 25, when the Senate voted 51-48 to reduce President Bush's proposed tax cut to $350 billion from $726 billion. The vote, on an amendment to the Fiscal 2004 budget resolution, came hours after the White House formally presented its $75 billion supplemental spending request for the war.
Utopians' War Plan Goes Awry in Iraq
by Carl Osgood
'The base commander's plan of action must achieve adequate protection to ensure accomplishment of missions by base elements with as small a force as necessary, since any drain of time and personnel from operational activities will adversely affect the accomplishment of their mission.' ...The utopian vision for a U.S. invasion of Iraq, however, envisioned a rapid advance north across the desert from Kuwait to strike quickly at the heart of the Ba'ath Party regime in Baghdad, take it out, and 'liberate' Iraq....
New Evidence:
D.C. General Shutdown Was Thoroughly Corrupt
by Edward Spannaus
New evidence has come to light documenting the criminal negligence and corruption involved in the privatization of health services in the District of Columbia two years ago...Even before the deal was done, spokesmen for EIR and for Lyndon LaRouche warned that the entity being given the privatization contract, Doctors Community Healthcare Corporation ...had been investigated and sued for fraud and racketeering in a number of jurisdictions.
Interview: Sen. Eugene McCarthy
Challenging the Democrats' 'War Party' With a Youth Movement—1967
This interview with former U.S. Sen. Eugene McCarthy was conducted by Nina Ogden on March 8, 2003. Senator McCarthy served in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He challenged the incumbent President of his own party, President Lyndon Baines Johnson, for the 1968 Democratic Presidential nomination.
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