Just remember when all is said and done, and you guys are through carping about Goldman, that Goldman is doing God's work. We have Blankfein's word on that.
Someone in the op's link blogged: "Paul Volker said the only useful financial product that has come out on the last 30 years is the atm." Lol! I have to agree.
I found this excellent article by Pam Martens on the net and I would strongly urge all ETers to read it. It includes important excerpts from the Act. http://www.counterpunch.org/martens03262010.html
I'll take a wild stab at it: Glass Steagall will be reintroduced, but the big Wall St. banks will get their greedy little fingers in there and tweak out the guts that made it a useful piece of legislation. There will be much fanfare, Congressmen and the President will all take credit for real, hard hitting protection for the common man. The middle class will become a little poorer, the rich will become a little richer, not much will change. Have I become too cynical?
Not too cynical. If the act were reinstated, I can only imagine how banks would twist the language so they can basically do what they've been doing. It would be business as usual after all of their lawyers finished twisting words... Sad state of affairs we have in the US these days.
It's more than a bit surreal that we continue to be spoon fed these "gestures" towards reform as we are in the midst of another episode of a rush to hard assets. Gold at $1500, silver at $45 and oil (gas prices) back near the 2008 highs. Per usual, everything is managed on the fly, there is literally no forward thought present in anything at this point. It's as if they are still relieved that we survived 2008-09, but now have absolutely no concept about what to do dampen this parabola in the other direction.