Alan Young's  Instablog

Sanders' legislation would give Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner 90 days to compile a list of commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds and insurance companies that he deems too big to fail. The affected financial institutions would include "any entity that has grown so large that its failure would have a catastrophic effect on the stability of either the financial system or the United States economy without substantial Government assistance."

Within one year after the legislation became law, the Treasury Department would be required to break up those banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions identified by the secretary.

"If an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist," Sanders said. "We should break them up so they are no longer in a position to bring down the entire economy."

 Not that there's any chance this bill will pass, but it's good to see the conversation getting rekindled.

Some will dismiss this proposal as "socialism." Although Sanders does describe himself as a socialist, he's not proposing socialism in this case. The "socialist" solution to an unmanageable banking system would be to simply put these entities under direct government control. Breaking up monopolies so that competition can flourish is in the best tradition of U.S. capitalism.

Read the entire bill (it's only three paragraphs) or Sanders' press release for more details.