The 1933 Glass–Steagall Act is widely viewed as a law that ended overly risky financial practices that led to the Great Depression. Yet, today, some people maintain that we shouldn’t have repealed Glass-Steagall; that letting banks buy stocks is just dumb. The 1999 law that supposedly repealed Glass-Steagall didn’t. Indeed, there is virtually no evidence that banks engaging in securities activities prior to Glass-Steagall were in worse financial condition than their specialized peers. The record also shows that the 1933 Glass-Steagall restrictions protected Wall Street investment banks from their commercial bank competition (and vice versa).

Source: Forbes April 11, 2017 16:41 UTC