Both Political Parties Say They Want to Regulate the Banks. Will We Regulate the Banks?
This year, both the Democratic and the Republican platforms say they want to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, which separates commercial and investment banking and is generally hated by banks. So what do the real “insiders” think will happen?
It will be difficult for any president to reinstitute Glass-Steagall. “I don’t think Glass-Steagall will ever actually happen,” says [Phillip] Swagel, the former [ assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department during the George W. Bush administration]. “It’s like Trump’s wall: It’s symbolic.”
RULE OF POLITICS: If Democrats say they want something and Republicans say they want the same thing but Wall Street doesn’t want it, it’s “symbolic.”
