>I don't know about beautiful, but I don't quite understand your point.
>Was glass steagal ever about dispersing power as opposed to risk or
>about reducing social inequality?
It emerges from a traditional preference for dispersion - institutional and geographical barriers to combination. It relates to lots of classic populist beliefs about localism, and even the "fetish of the grassroots" that came up here recently.
>I assume eliminating the glass steagal restrictions will create stronger
>financial firms. What benefits of this should the left endorse?
Who said anything about benefits? I think the heavy breathing about it is way overdone, and the theoretical arguments against it aren't very persuasive. If there's a left position on institutional arrangements in finance, I think it'd be to create public and cooperative institutions capitalized through a tax on the big guys.
Doug