Debbie Dingell: “I want to express affection and respect for the authors of this amendment, but I want to differ with them strongly on…”

“I want to express affection and respect for the authors of this amendment, but I want to differ with them strongly on its need. I talked to the distinguished chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. He opposes this amendment, and he says this in his May 4 letter to me: ``There is every reason to move with caution in this area. The combining of banking and commerce is clearly irreversible. Once permitted, the Congress is unlikely to impose the costs and disruption of disentanglement.'' Let us look at Germany. Their financial institutions have been discussed. The German economy is stagnant. They are exporting jobs because they cannot start them up at home. Look at Asia, and look what is happening. Over there, a bank can do anything it wants. They own property, they own real estate, they own businesses, they own stock. When values start going down on those kinds of assets, the bank is in serious trouble. It happened in Thailand, it happened in Korea, it has happened in Japan, and all three economies are stagnant, in good part because of this. Listen to what Chairman Greenspan says: The current turmoil in some Asian economies highlights the risk that can arise from the interrelationships between banks and nonbank corporate entities.”