It's nice to see so many commenters invoking Glass Steagall as an example of legislating away stupidity, risk-taking, and greed, for that is exactly what it did. When the firewall between commercial and investment banks dropped via Glass Steagall in 1933 the greedy, stupid risk-takers on Wall Street were told:
"If you want to go out on the tightrope and do a silly, immoral, and unethical dance with your investor's money there will be no safety net for you. There will be no allowing you to blackmail the government to bail you out by you being able to hold the entire financial system hostage. If you slip on the tightrope we will let you splat on the pavement, but we won't allow you to take everyone else's financial well being with you when you go."
Glass Steagall kept the greedy, stupid, risk takers from crashing the US Economy for 60 years. So Geithner is wrong, you CAN legislate away Stupidity, Risk-Taking and Greed, and history shows we have done it before successfully.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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