clinton era tax rates might be good enough to bring the deficit under control, but wouldn't be good enough to even start reversing the upward concentration of wealth. it would merely slow it down a bit.
glass-steagall is hopelessly outdated, and the big problems and systemic risks didn't and aren't coming from now-legal violations of the old glass-steagall rules. dodd-frank actually does quite a bit better at regulating the financial industry in this regard. we could and should do more, but glass-steagall is something that the financial community found ways around long ago.
derivatives have a terrible reputation, but the vast majority of derivative positions are incredibly useful and safe and appropriate. they allow all manner of legitimate risks to be hedged and transferred to entities that are in a better position to manage them. in fact, to a large extent, many derivatives actually offset and cancel out. the net risk is far, far lower than one might guess when looking at the "total" of all derivatives out there. the problem is not derivatives themselves, but the ability of big financial institutions to take outsized exposures and put the entire economy at risk. regulations should either limit the size of the risks or limit the systemic effects of a financial institution's failure.
"all this insane speculation" is mostly not speculation at all. it's providing a financial services to those who have legitimate business risk. if i run a business that requires oil, my business might get killed if oil prices surge. so it's wise for me to buy oil futures (or some such derivative) so that if that price surge happens, my futures position offsets the loss to my business. my business continues to run and jobs are saved. this is not a bad thing, even if on the other side of the trade it looks like some bank or hedge fund is just making a wild bet the oil prices will go down.
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