The 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall had been a mere formality: the real point was that the whole prudential banking regime that had been established by Glass-Steagall was gone, too.
Nothing in Glass-Steagall prevented banks from writing or buying crappy mortgages.
What had actually swept it away was a decade of merger mania that the Fed had blessed every step along the way,
It's true, larger banks can better afford to comply with ever more expensive banking regulations.
As wards of the state, chartered deposit banks needed to be strictly regulated in order to prevent abuse of their fractional reserve banking privileges,
Because they aren't strictly regulated. DURR.
to say nothing of the moral hazard implicit in taxpayer-supported deposit insurance
Stockman misses the pre-FDIC 1930s.
and in their right to access the Fed's discount window for emergency loans.'
Wouldn't want the lender of last resort to lend in an emergency, eh?
) parents who have never experienced homelessness before, begin living on the streets?
