Two decades ago, Donald Langevoort, now a law professor at Georgetown, showed that major bankers – indeed, the leaders of First National City, the predecessor to Weill’s Citibank – proposed Glass-Steagall in lieu of deposit insurance. No big bank was at risk from trading securities then, but the big banks’ investment-banking affiliates were not making money trading and underwriting securities during the Depression, so the banks were willing to surrender that part of their business.