I Want My Glass-Steagall Act Back

I have some vague memories of when the Glass Steagall Act was repealed in 1980 but I didn’t really see the implications of what it did, just a bit of uneasiness. Banking was banking and investment banking didn’t seem much different from commercial banking. But my what an impact it has made on our society, particularly in relation to banks being less and less responsible and more removed from the people they do business with. Nor did I see the uncontrolled greed it would lead to. So, I want it back. I know we’ve made some changes but I don’t thing enough. Rather than my trying to explain the Act, here’s the stuff from Wikipedia for what it’s worth.

Glass–Steagall Act

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the 1933 Act establishing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. For the 1932 Act by the same sponsors, see Glass–Steagall Act of 1932.

The Banking Act of 1933, Pub. L. No. 73-66, 48 Stat. 162, enacted June 16, 1933, was a law that established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the United States and introduced banking reforms, some of which were designed to control speculation.^[1] It is most commonly known as the Glass–Steagall Act, after its legislative sponsors, Senator Carter Glass (D—Va.) and Congressman Henry B. Steagall(D—Ala.-3). Some provisions of the Act, such as Regulation Q, which allowed the Federal Reserve to regulate interest rates in savings accounts, were repealed by the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980. Provisions that prohibit a bank holding company from owning other financial companies were repealed on November 12, 1999, by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, named after its co-sponsors Phil Gramm (R, Texas), Rep. Jim Leach (R, Iowa), and Rep. Thomas J. Bliley, Jr. (R, Virginia).^[2][3]

The repeal of provisions of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 by the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act effectively removed the separation that previously existed between investment banking which issued securities and commercial banks which accepted deposits. The deregulation also removed conflict of interest prohibitions between investment bankers serving as officers of commercial banks. This repeal directly contributed to the severity of the Financial crisis of 2007–2011 by allowing Wall Street investment banking firms to gamble with their depositors' money that was held in commercial banks owned or created by the investment firms.