POLITICO COLUMN: …Because under all this heavy pressure from progressives behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the left and populists like Donald Trump on the right — and the weight of new regulation and activist shareholders — Big Wall Street is already shrinking on its own…
J.P. Morgan is selling off a chunk of its private equity business. AIG is contemplating breaking into smaller pieces. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are watching trading profits dwindle with no real clue if or when they will ever come back. Giant banks including Wells Fargo will now be required to raise around $120 billion in new capital. General Electric is getting out of the financial services business entirely.
The battle cry to break up the biggest banks and reinstate the Depression-era rule separating investment and commercial banking will certainly go on. But in concrete ways the pitchfork wielding forces looking to storm Wall Street’s gates continue to win big, even though headlines might make you think otherwise… (more)
