De waarneming dat Glass-Steagall niet van toepassing was op de meeste instellingen die bij die crisis betrokken waren – Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, WaMu en Wachovia – roept twijfels op over het belang van die wet.
The observation that most of the institutions involved – Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, the GSE Freddie Mac, AIG, WaMu, and Wachovia – were not covered by Glass-Steagall calls into question its centrality.