Ex-Citi Chief of 14 years says they are too big and should be broken up….
and Kaufman and Sherrod Brown.
Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Hannah Arendt, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
According to NYTimes, “There also has been concern about the size of banks from Republicans who believe in free-market principles. Several senators from the South and West — Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, John Cornyn of Texas and John McCain of Arizona — have expressed a desire to revisit the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era law that separated commercial and investment banking… When Mr. Kanjorski pressed [Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke] on whether regulators should be allowed to break up big banks, he replied, “It’s something that would be, on the whole, constructive.””
“If they’re too big to fail, they’re too big,” Greenspan said today. “In 1911 we broke up Standard Oil — so what happened? The individual parts became more valuable than the whole. Maybe that’s what we need to do.” Greenspan Says U.S. Should Consider Breaking Up Large Banks
“A third top Fed official is calling for megabanks to be broken up. James Bullard, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis“: St. Louis Fed Chief Calls For Megabanks To Be Broken Up, Joins Other Top Fed Officials.
‘Richard W. Fisher, president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, told a gathering of economists and financial experts Wednesday that “a truly effective restructuring of our regulatory system will have to neutralize what I consider to be the greatest threat to our financial system’s stability… ‘too big to fail’.”‘ Another Top Fed Official Calls For U.S. To Break Up Megabanks
Breaking up Citi and Other Mega-Banks: the Missing Blueprints from The Center for Corporate Policy: Restructuring Citi to Serve the Public Interest.
Thomas Hoenig of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City: Top Fed Official Wants To Break Up Megabanks, Stop The Fed From Guaranteeing Wall Street’s Profits
Nassim Taleb, Naked Capitalism, Baseline Scenario. Financial bloggers Felix Salmon and Mike Konczal; and conservative commenter Arnold Kling of the National Review.
Thanks to Shahien for pointing them out.
And we finally have Paul Krugman to say it is a decent idea for political reasons.
“The following top economists and financial experts believe that the economy cannot recover unless the big, insolvent banks are broken up in an orderly fashion:”
Nobel prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel prize-winning economist, Ed Prescott, Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, Dean and professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School, and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, R. Glenn Hubbard, Simon Johnson (and see this), President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Thomas Hoenig (and see this), Deputy Treasury Secretary, Neal S. Wolin, The President of the Independent Community Bankers of America, a Washington-based trade group with about 5,000 members, Camden R. Fine, The Congressional panel overseeing the bailout (and see this, The head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair, The head of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, The leading monetary economist and co-author with Milton Friedman of the leading treatise on the Great Depression, Anna Schwartz, Economics professor and senior regulator during the S & L crisis, William K. Black, Economics professor, Nouriel Roubini, Economist, Marc Faber, Professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the Chicago Booth School of Business, Luigi Zingales, Economics professor, Thomas F. Cooley, Former investment banker, Philip Augar, Chairman of the Commons Treasury, John McFall.
Archein
It’s important, now, to designate WHICH Senator Brown.
yes, good idea.