Andrew Young on Beck March: Dumping Bretton Woods System and Repeal of Glass-Steagall Caused the Economic Crisis

In an Aug. 28 interview with CNN "Newsroom" on the Glenn Beck March to the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, former UN Ambassador, Atlanta Mayor, and Martin Luther King aide Andrew Young made comments reflecting the best of the civil rights movement—comments which will resonate with regular viewers of www.larouchepac.com.

Young said that although the economic issue was part of Dr. King's speech in 1963, Dr. King's speech was primarily political. "Today, the issue is no longer primarily political. It's an economic problem we are facing now ... I would say it started back in 1973 [sic—1971-72], when we ended what was called the Bretton Woods agreement that created a fair economy for the whole world. Oil was $3 a barrel then. In six months, it was $30 a barrel and went on. Then, the other thing was in the second term of President Clinton, we changed something called Regulation Q and the Glass-Steagall Act repeal. Those three events are the events that helped shape our present day economy. They, I think, caused the housing crisis. I think they caused the imbalance in the banking situation ... What we're seeing [in the Beck march] is a march of people who really feel frustrated and confused, and they want to blame somebody, but they don't know who to blame, and they don't really understand the predicament we're in."

Asked by CNN, "Does it bother you that this day would be used as a backdrop in which to have that discussion, or to voice concerns or those frustrations?"

Young replied, "No, it doesn't concern me, because I wish somehow they had been able to get together [both groups, the Al Sharpton and the Beck groups]. As Dr. King put it, the focus should be on making the system work for everybody."