Reckless Banking

Liam Halligan wrote,

We need desperately to re-impose the split between commercial banks (where you and I deposit money, and which then lend to ordinary businesses) and investment banks (which carry-out higher risk strategies).

The removal of the "Glass-Steagall" firewall in both the US and UK is the prime reason for the current crisis. By merging with commercial banks, leveraging their taxpayer-guaranteed deposits and using them to place reckless bets, the investment banks have destroyed the financial strength of the Western world. Any schoolboy economist can see that. Why can't Gordon Brown or Barack Obama?