Foreword
In the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929, SenatorCarter Glass (VA-D) and Representative Henry Steagall (AL-D) shepherdedthrough Congress legislation designed to prevent additional Depression-erafinancial failures. The Banking Act of 1933, which became knownas the Glass-Steagall Act, prohibited affiliations among banking,securities, and insurance companies.As time passed and economic prosperity returned, the financialservices industries began to pressure Congress to reinstate theirearlier freedoms. But while regulators and the courts began torelax some restrictions on cross-ownership of banking, insurance,and securities interests, Congress failed for two decades to repealGlass-Steagall and subsequent laws that limited financial sectoractivities.One reason for the stalemate was skepticism among…
