Jake Jones
Obama Is Taking Heat For A Reportedly Hefty Wall Street Speaking Fee
The former president will reportedly get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to speak at a Wall Street conference later this year.
LEARN MOREMay 1, 2017
Despite President Trump's deregulation efforts, there's one area of the economy he thinks could use some more rules: Wall Street.
Since Trump took office, the stock market has gone up several points. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin recently told managers on Wall Street they should thank him for bank stock value going up.
But any gratitude might evaporate under Trump’s recent comments about bringing back the Glass-Steagall Act, a 1933 law that keeps taxpayer-insured banks from engaging in particularly risky activities, like trading stocks. Investors, in turn, would not be bailed out if speculative investing led to a loss.
The law was repealed in 1999 but gained renewed interest after the Great Recession of 2008. Some speculate that provisions in the act might have stopped some of the driving factors behind the recession. It also could have prevented Wells Fargo from offering some of those extra services that customers were fraudulently signed up for, ultimately costing the bank $185 million in fines.
Trump called for a revamped version of the law on the campaign trail, as did Bernie Sanders.
If Trump wants a new Glass-Steagall Act, he'd have to get Congress to write it. And lawmakers have issues like taxes and health care reform to tackle first.
