ravan

In the world of common sense, this statement would be obvious: "Too Big To (allow to) Fail" is "Too Big To (allow to) Exist". Otherwise, you are always on the hook for bailouts and concessions to these institutions. Simple, no?

But Washington, DC and Wall Street don't live in the land of common sense. They live in the land of automatic welfare for megacorporations, but no welfare for the poor or out of work. They live in the land of socialized corporate losses and bailouts, but no "socialism" for the citizen regardless of the social good. They live in the land of what's good for big business is good for everybody, even when it isn't. They live in a land where obscene profits are a "right", but a roof over your head, food in your belly, and care for your health are unearned "entitlements" and "privileges", to be doled out by your corporate masters for good consumer behavior.

When they repealed Glass-Stegal, (look up Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) they lined their own pockets, created the "too big to fail" (or be regulated) monster, and doomed us and future generations to indenture to international corporate interests. The "Reagan revolution" had "succeeded", for those who were behind the revolution. The rest of us a stuck paying the bill.

I have nothing against real businesses, that either produce real goods or real services. But when corporate quarterlies are more important than giving value to customers for money, it's not a real business any more, it's a leech on society.

When the average person can't understand "complex" securities, it indicates that those financial instruments are probably funny money, and possibly fraudulent. The kind of companies whose "lifeblood" is trading paper and promises need to be eliminated - broken up, regulated,or closed with their corporate charter revoked. Enron, WorldCom, AIG, and others like them need to be stopped before they suck more of our real wealth into their maw.

Those who trade in pure paper (CDOs, SIVs, futures, etc), not backed by real goods or real services, need to be run out of business (and out of town) on a rusty rail.

Paper burns at 451° F - phony, made-up "securities" aren't even worth the paper they're printed on. Burn them for fuel.