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I do like this idea, but I'm a bit skeptical that a relic of the 1930s would work in our modern economy. Thus, I suspect the answer is a bit more complex than "Bring back Glass-Steagall".


I think the economics is pretty timeless, actually. A lot of the regulation was aimed at preventing catastrophic bank failures, before the idea of Too Big To Fail was invented. Glass-Steagall contains the idea that a commercial bank, which gets major regulatory freebies by virtue of being a commercial bank (FDIC, Fed access, &c), shouldn't have access to unfettered financial markets. And so on.


Banking hasn't changed so much since the 1930s.


It's really not that complicated. It's just proper alignment of risk.


Go and read J.K. Galbraith's The Great Crash: 1929. It's a short book, an easy read, and quite informative. Particularly interesting is his examination of causes and ramifications. If you buy a recent edition, these have been updated through the 1960s and 70s, with a foreward by his son in 2009 (the book was first published in 1955).

Though the situation of the 2008-2011+ crash/depression isn't an exact reflection of 1929, there are very strong rhymes.




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