The Glass-Steagall Act was instated in 1933 in response to rampant speculation in the American Stock Market, and put into place many regulations within the financial industries that protected the consumer from the often reckless practices of the banks that caused the great depression.
Over the past seven decades the Act has been repealed, piece by piece, and we find ourselves again in a national recession caused by an unchecked banking industry.
Reinstating the portion of Glass-Steagall that makes commercial bank gambling of consumer assets illegal would allow Americans to restore confidence in the American banking system, help prevent future banking disasters, and lessen then pain of the recession we are now in.