Howard_T

Is Too Big to Fail Now Too Big to Exist?

I say break them up into their constituent parts, banking, brokerage, etc. While you're at it, likewise break up the entire industry. I think this was once called "Glass-Steagle". This will force the largest of the banks to compete on a more even footing with the smaller regional banks, and should result in more money getting into the hands of businesses in the form of loans.

If the mega-banks are not broken up, remember this: Even Tyrannosaurus Rex was too big to fail, and we all know what happened to the dinosaurs.

Major Banks Now Much Too Big to Fail

Too big to fail equates to too big to exist. These juggernauts need to be broken down into smaller, more useful vehicles before they crush us all. Restore Glass-Steagle, and make banks be banks, brokerages be brokerages, and commercial lenders be commercial lenders. When all of these things are placed under one roof, there is too much opportunity for numbers to be juggled, trash to be swept into dark corners, and outright fraud to be committed.

Turning Japanese: The Audacity of Reality (Part 3 of 3)

Mr. Jeremy Needham has the correct slant on things for those who believe massive spending, a la WW II, will generate a recovery. Anyone who believes that throwing massive amounts of paper at the crisis will bail us out, just because it worked to end the depression of the 30's, hasn't looked at reality. In the late 30's, the US was the only economy among the major nations to be producing consumer goods. Europe and the industrial nations of Asia had been on a war footing for at least 3 years prior to 1941. During WW II we spent massive amounts of treasure to produce the means to fight the war, but at the end of 1945 we were the last nation left standing. Our productive capacity had not been touched, and with the pent up demand for goods fueled by the savings of a fully-employed population, the economy recovered to a consumer footing with blinding speed. Europe and Asia were forced to buy from us, and whatever treasure we had used during the war was rapidly replaced.

Perhaps once the population of the US figures out the ineptitude of our political leaders, we will take the correct 14 steps Mr. Quinn has proposed. Then maybe someone will emulate an impoverished Japanese mechanic at the end of WW II. This guy bought some surplus electrical generators from the US Army, removed the gasoline engines from them, and mounted the engines on bicycles to make motorbikes. He did pretty well thereafter. His name was Honda Shoichiro.