The current issue of Costco Connection, the magazine for patrons of the big-box discount store, contains a two-page spread examining the pros and cons of reinstating the Glass-Steagall banking law in America.
“Should We Separate Commercial Banks from Investment Banks?” features a “pro” column by Sheila Bair, former chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and a “con” piece by Mark Roe, a professor at Harvard Law School.
Costco members sound off, too, and the article contains links to other coverage of Glass-Steagall.
Three bills are pending in the U.S. House and Senate to resurrect the 1933 banking law that shielded Main Street commercial accounts from speculative activity at Wall Street brokerage. The law's repeal in 1999 preceded the 2008 financial crisis that required more than $700 billion in taxpayer bailouts to investment banks deemed "too big to fail."
