Point of No Return
Don't Pine for Glass-Steagall
The Depression-era law was never the bulwark it was made out to be nor is its return the solution to better stability.
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Main Street doesn’t ordinarily concern itself with the minutiae of banking regulation, but ever since the 2008 financial crisis, one Depression-era banking law has stuck in the public imagination but probably shouldn't.
I’m talking about Glass-Steagall, the 1933 law that separated commercial and investment banking. Main Street contends that its repeal in 1999 contributed to -- or even caused -- the near-collapse of the financial system and that it should be resurrected. Wall Street, of course, disagrees.