Live Coverage Of The First Democratic Debate

Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders clearly see a political advantage in attacking Hillary Clinton as being soft on Wall Street. They want to break up the big banks and reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act’s separation of commercial and investment banking operations. Clinton has said that “too big to fail” remains a problem but hasn’t endorsed bringing back Glass-Steagall. Clinton’s defense: O’Malley and Sanders are living in the past. The financial crisis showed that many of the biggest threats to the economy come not from banks but from enormous non-banking financial institutions like the insurance company AIG. And in recent years, numerous studies have highlighted the risks posed by the “shadow-banking sector” and other, less-regulated corners of the financial industry. That argument may or may not play politically, but it’s one that many experts endorse.

How do voters feel about Glass-Steagall? It’s difficult to say because it has been polled so infrequently. A search of the Roper Center Archive reveals that only one poll question has been devoted to “Glass-Steagall” dating back to 1935.