The Glass Steagall Act was passed in 1933, also known as The Banking Act to tighten regulation of how banks did business. This act was written as an emergency measure when approximately 5,000 banks failed during the Great Depression. Banks failed mostly because of the way they would invest with the money. The law prohibits banks from investing money in investments that prove risky. Banks could no longer sell stocks or bonds. The act also created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to protect individuals' deposits, which is still used to this day. The FDIC in this era insures your deposits in your bank up to $250,000. This gave the public the confidence to put their money in the bank again. In 1933 there was a public holiday when banks closed for four days to ensure they could continue to operate. Around 4,000 banks were closed because they were no longer able to function. Commercial banks and investment banks have been separated into two different sectors. The Dodd-Frank Act places the responsibility on Wall Street to invest money in risky behaviors that then fail. The law is designed to ensure that financial institutions do not abuse risky investments and are not liable for any failures. For example, when banks were considered too big to fail, the government continued to bail them out. The law also provides greater consumer protection to everyday people who may not know much about the complicated financial structure. The law states that applications, terms and conditions must be easy to read and understand. Before people ended up in bad credit or paying ridiculous fees because the way the "fine print" was written. Even the smartest people have made costly financial mistakes where t...... middle of paper ...... and there will always be loopholes. I don't see anything that can be changed or added to this law. Time will tell if there will be any changes or adjustments regarding this new law. At least for now as consumers we can rest assured that there is now some kind of protection and that our money should be safer in banks. We can finally be sure that when buying a home the terms will be easier to understand. Works Cited Morgenson, Gretchen. "Wake up the Banking Police." The New York Times. The New York Times, December 14, 2013. Web. May 4, 2014. .The White House. "Wall Street Reform: The Dodd-Frank Act." The White House. The White House and the Web. 04 May 2014. .