![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In a series of sensational hearings, Pecora exposed the deeds of people like Charles Mitchell, head of the largest bank in America, National City Bank (now Citibank), who made more than $1 million in bonuses in 1929 but paid zero taxes. ‘Banksters’ Profit While Americans Suffer If that company then failed, the bank suffered no losses while its investors were left holding the bag. Part of the problem, as Pecora and his investigative team revealed, was that banks could lend money to a company and then issue stock in that same company without revealing to shareholders the bank’s underlying conflict of interest. Senate’s Committee on Banking and Currency, Pecora-an Italian immigrant who rose through the ranks of Tammany Hall, despite his reputation for honesty-dug into the actions of top bank executives and found rampant reckless behavior, corruption and cronyism. Some of those “undue diversions” and “speculative operations” had been revealed in congressional investigations led by a firebrand prosecutor named Ferdinand Pecora.Īs chief counsel to the U.S. Roosevelt signed the Glass-Steagall Act into law as part of a series of measures adopted during his first 100 days to restore the country’s economy and trust in its banking systems. Senator Carter Glass, a Democrat from Virginia, first introduced the legislation in January 1932, and the bill was co-sponsored by Democratic Alabama Representative Henry Steagall.īy June 16, 1933, President Franklin D. economy, many blamed the economic meltdown in part on financial-industry shenanigans and loose banking regulations. The Glass-Steagall Act prohibited bankers from using depositors’ money to pursue high-risk investments, but the act was effectively undercut by looser restrictions in the deregulatory environment of the 1980s and 1990s.Īs the Great Depression of the 1930s devastated the U.S. banks shut down between 19, leaving depositors with nearly $400 million in losses. Millions of Americans lost their jobs in the Great Depression, and one in four lost their life savings after more than 4,000 U.S. “But deep in their hearts, there’s hope that they’ll be able to return to the village.”įrank Jordans has contributed to this report from Berlin.The Glass-Steagall Act, part of the Banking Act of 1933, was a landmark banking legislation that separated Wall Street from Main Street by offering protection to people who entrust their savings to commercial banks. “There’s nothing you can do against nature,” he said. Pelico said members of his congregation are torn between hope and pain. “They have to leave their village,” he added. “But now they’re suddenly realizing that something terrible might happen.” Pelico said many residents of the village had grown used to hearing the regular thunder of rockfall over the years. “The church and the altar are important, but the people are more important,” he told The Associated Press in a phone interview. At the current “orange” alert level, however, farm animals were to be left behind.įederico Pelico, the pastor of Albula and Brienz, said they managed to disassemble and remove the precious 500-year-old winged altarpiece that was in the church. Many of the evacuees were expected to stay with family or friends, though local leaders have received offers from concerned neighbors to provide temporary housing. But measurements indicated a “strong acceleration over a large area” in recent days, and “up to 2 million cubic meters of rock material will collapse or slide in the coming seven to 24 days,” officials said. The mountain and the rocks on it have been moving since the last Ice Age, local officials say. The centuries-old village straddles German- and Romansch-speaking parts of the eastern Graubunden region, sitting southwest of Davos at an altitude of about 1,150 meters (about 3,800 feet). on Friday but could return to the village from time to time starting Saturday, depending on the risk level, but not stay overnight. Local leaders said during a town hall and a media event Tuesday that residents would have to leave by 6 p.m. GENEVA (AP) - Authorities in eastern Switzerland ordered residents of the tiny village of Brienz to evacuate by Friday evening because geology experts say a mass of 2 million cubic meters of Alpine rock looming overhead could break loose and spill down in the coming weeks. ![]()
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