The to big to fail doctrine bouncing around political circles needs to fail.  The US taxpayer cannot afford to absorb, nor should absorb the risks of commercial enterprise.  Think about it.  Global corporations are far larger financially than most countries. 

To big to fail is nothing more than government getting larger at the taxpayers expense.  Investors need to decide who survives and fails in the business world.  Insurance companies need to provide risk coverage if that is desired.  Investors need to profit or not based on there decision to invest or not.  It is the governments job to legislate the rules that businesses must follow to maintain a safe and level playing field.  After all we don't want Joe Average Citizen being hurt for something beyond there control.

We taxpayers can not afford to absorb the financial risks of all US multinational companies and we must let our elected officials know.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  It would have been far cheaper to the taxpayer to let these bailed-out companies fail, and pick up the pieces latter.  Investors would be much wiser and would reprice the risk.  Weak companies would be broken apart and sold off to stronger institutions during bankruptcy.  The government could have provided 2 years of unemployment insurance to 25% of the population for less than current bailout saving the taxpayer tremendous amounts of money.

So we move forward by breaking up the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's of the world.  Don't forget Sallie Mae.  We separate the insurance business from the banking and investment sides of the house.  We allow government to establish new rules as to competition.  Must have at least 10 separate sizable businesses in each industry greater than 3% sales with no one business accounting for more than 40% or rules to that effect.  Any industry or segment that currently breaks those rules needs to be legislated until they conform.  That includes agriculture which is another problem area for another one of my notes. 

Your vote counts.

Bill Harder