pa2970c.jpg Paul Lachine

Too Big To Handle

In the discussion of whether the largest US financial institutions have become too big, a sea change in opinion is underway. Indeed, the only people still arguing that these organizations can be managed in a way that generates sustainable value for shareholders and keeps taxpayers out of harm’s way tend to work for them.

WASHINGTON, DC – In the discussion of whether America’s largest financial institutions have become too big, a sea change in opinion is underway. Two years ago, during the debate about the Dodd-Frank financial-reform legislation, few people thought that global megabanks represented a pressing problem. Some prominent senators even suggested that very large European banks represented something of a role model for the United States.

In any case, the government, according to the largest banks’ CEOs, could not possibly impose a cap on their assets’ size, because to do so would undermine the productivity and competitiveness of the US economy. Such arguments are still heard – but, increasingly, only from those employed by global megabanks, including their lawyers, consultants, and docile economists.

Everyone else has shifted to the view that these financial behemoths have become too large and too complex to manage – with massive adverse consequences for the wider economy. And every time the CEO of such a bank is forced to resign, the evidence mounts that these organizations have become impossible to manage in a responsible way that generates sustainable value for shareholders and keeps taxpayers out of harm’s way.

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