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This article compares the politics during the passage of the Glass-Steagall law, which separated retail banking from investment banking and created the FDIC, in response to the role of Wall Street in triggering the Great Depression. The GOP called the FDIC "socialism" but the bill was easily passed by congress.

The banking system operated successfully under Glass-Steagall for 70 years but it was repealed under a democratic administration with ample support from the GOP. The repeal of Glass-Steagall, along with other bills that limited government regulation of banking, enabled the over-leveraging and risk taking that contributed to the financial crisis. The political response to the financial crisis has done little this time to prevent the next financial crisis. The banking lobby's have been much more effective in delaying or weakening efforts to make meaningful reform in the system.