Paddy Hirsch explains proprietary trading

Financial Reform is now in the home stretch as the House and Senate work to reconcile the two versions of the legislation, aiming to send a completed bill to President Obama by July 4. It looks likely that a version of the so-called Volcker Rule, restrictions on risky trading by commercial banks with their own capital, will be included in the final version of the bill. Or, in other words, a sort of reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act, which required that commercial banks remain separate from investment banks. We asked our friend Paddy Hirsch of Marketplace to do one of his excellent whiteboard explainers for us.