Political drama over how to regulate the financial industry, replete with an f-bomb-filled rant from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, has obscured a huge unresolved issue: what to do about too-big-to-fail financial institutions.
If anything, questions surrounding these institutions -- banks, insurers, brokers, and who knows what else -- have grown. This leaves a big question mark hanging over a vast swath of the financial system.
In the meantime, it’s Christmas every day for the too-big- to fail crowd, with taxpayers playing Santa Claus. Just look at interest expenses that have been halved at banks like Citigroup Inc., thanks to loan guarantees and zero-percent interest rates, or the 46 $100-million-plus trading days racked up by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in the second quarter.
You are free to comment on this discussion in any way you feel is appropriate. If you choose to use to use any language which our editors feel is vulgar -- by their standards -- your comment may be tagged "Crude or Lewd" and may be filtered out of the discussion by those who prefer not to read that sort of thing. If you know you have entered something which will cause your comment to be tagged, we ask that you tag it yourself to save us the time. We do encourage everyone to be civil and not make rude attacks on other people in the Forum. We don't censor out those remarks, but few people enjoy reading them and we would like participation in our Forums to be a pleasant experience for everyone. And, by concentrating on what is said instead of who is saying it, even those who may disagree with you will be more likely to consider your opinions valid.
