Nothing Can Stop The Power Of Helicopter Ben

Helicopter Ben says the POWAH OF REGULATION will prevent the next global depression 80 years from now!

"We must have a strategy that regulates the financial system as a whole, in a holistic way, not just its individual components," Bernanke said in prepared remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Fed chief's speech come as the Obama administration and Congress are starting to crafting their overhaul strategies. For the administration, critical work on that front will be carried out among global finance officials this weekend in London. That will help set the stage for a meeting of leaders from the world's 20 major economic powers in April.

Revamping the U.S. financial rule book -- a patchwork that dates to the Civil War -- is a complex task. Congress, the administration and the Fed are involved because they want to strengthen the system to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis -- the worst since the 1930s-- that has plunged the U.S. and many other countries' economies into painful recessions.

Here's a start, kids: Repeal Gramm-Leach-Bliley. Bring back the separation of insurance, banking, and brokerages under Glass-Steagall. In the space of less than ten years, GLB has all but destroyed the global financial system.

Get that law passed. These companies are costing us trillions and trillions of dollars to save. They should be downsized and broken up to the point where they are no longer systemic threats to the world financial fabric if even one of them fails. You want to reform the system there, Ben? Start there.

No real, meaningful reform to the financial system can start without first putting back the bank regulations that were enacted after the *last* depression, and that means restoring Glass-Steagall's firewalls between the financial, brokerage, and insurance industries. These corrupt companies only exist now thanks to trillions in bailouts and loan guarantees backed up by taxpayer dollars, and they have shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that corporate greed and shoddy enforcement will invariably lead to disaster. I have no sympathy left for them, and neither does anyone else.

The time has come. If Helicopter Ben is serious about reform, start with Nancy and Harry putting back Glass-Steagall.