Saturday, March 14, 2009

Glass Steagall Act

I was still in darkness when Glass Steagall Act 1933 was repealed in 1998 i.e. my life was still upside down. I was just starting my banana farm then. I was broke like hell. I had to walk 5km to the Kuala Pilah town just to mail a job application letter. Many times I had to drink a tap water to avoid thirst because when I was in town I just had enough sen to cover my bus fare home.

In 2002 With God's grace my mother got some money inherited from my late grandfather thus I bought my Perodua Kancil i.e. the cheapest new car in Malaysia then BUT the people of Kuala Pilah reacted as if they wanted to cut my hand. WHY? Is it that wrong for me to have my own car? IDIOT ! Moreover is it that wrong for me to marry a foreigner?

Coming back to Glass Steagall Act. Honestly even if it is NOT repealed I doubt that the current US credit crunch (which is a global crisis now) could be averted. The reason being Americans are used to non monetary instruments (Credit Cards etc) rather than paying cash.

Obviously many items were overlooked when Glass Steagall Act was repealed even though on paper Riegle-Neil IBBEA 1994 and GLBA of 1999 looked promising. Maybe its time for President Obama to look into this matter again.

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