Forum Post: From Dallas Fed- Ending 'Too Big to Fail': A Proposal for Reform Before It's Too Late
Posted 11 years ago on Jan. 17, 2013, 9:36 a.m. EST by john32
(-272)
from Pittsburgh, PA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The Fed talking some sense for once:
"It is an honor to be introduced by my college classmate, John Henry. John is a descendant of the iconic patriot, Patrick Henry. Most of John’s ancestors were prominent colonial Virginians and many were anti-crown. Patrick, however, was the most outspoken. Ask John why this was so, and he will answer: “Patrick was poor.”
However poor he may have been, Patrick Henry was a rich orator. In one of his greatest speeches, he said: “Different men often see the same subject in different lights; and therefore, I hope that it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do, opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely, and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony … [it] is one of awful moment to this country.”
Patrick Henry was addressing the repression of the American colonies by the British crown. Tonight, I wish to speak to a different kind of repression—the injustice of being held hostage to large financial institutions considered “too big to fail,” or TBTF for short.
I submit that these institutions, as a result of their privileged status, exact an unfair tax upon the American people. Moreover, they interfere with the transmission of monetary policy and inhibit the advancement of our nation’s economic prosperity.
I have spoken of this for several years, beginning with a speech on the “Pathology of Too-Big-to-Fail” in July 2009.[1] My colleague, Harvey Rosenblum—a highly respected economist and the Dallas Fed’s director of research—and I and our staff have written about it extensively. Tomorrow, we will issue a special report that further elucidates our proposal for dealing with the pathology of TBTF. It also addresses the superior relative performance of community banks during the recent crisis and how they are being victimized by excessive regulation that stems from responses to the sins of their behemoth counterparts. I urge all of you to read that report.[2]"..........
continued:
That was interesting and I actually chuckled at this point:
Haldane notes that regulators’ “… efforts to catch the crisis Frisbee have continued to escalate. Casual empiricism reveals an ever-growing number of regulators … Ever-larger litters have not, however, obviously improved the watchdogs’ Frisbee-catching abilities. [After all,] no regulator had the foresight to predict the financial crisis, although some have since exhibited supernatural powers of hindsight.