On the Assertion that Repealing Glass-Steagall Caused the Financial and Housing Collapse

I really gotta vote, no, on this one - two reasons. a) The vast, VAST, majority of banks that failed were either wholly commercial banks or wholly investment banks. The only glaring exception was CitiBank, and does anybody really think that turkey of a company, with that track record, wouldn't have had problems anyway? And b) The data here is pretty clear that what ultimately got many of these commercial banks into trouble were NOT activities that the Glass-Steagall law ever prohibited. Yeah, that's right, folks, their problems largely arose from investments in residential mortgages and residential mortgage-backed securities—strategies and investments that these folks had ALWAYS been free to engage in, WITH GLASS-STEAGALL!! Hello!