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> I really hate the "too big to fail" meme and I strongly agree with Bernie in that if you are too big to fail you are too big to exist. That seems like the mo
by awkwarddaturtle 9y ago
> I really hate the "too big to fail" meme and I strongly agree with Bernie in that if you are too big to fail you are too big to exist.
That seems like the most reasonable response. And yet, since the great recession, our policy has been "make 'too big to fail' even bigger".
The problem is that the banks have become too powerful for anyone to challenge. A Teddy Roosevelt type of political leader can't exist today.
- adventured 9y agoCorporate entities were radically more powerful in Teddy Roosevelt's day, far beyond what they are today. They were almost entirely unchained in regards to economic power, whereas today there is hyper regulation (tens of thousands of pages of it, including direct Fed control over the banking system). Standard Oil was as powerful as the US Government in that era, as were the railroads. JP Morgan was far more powerful than the US Treasury. Cornelius Vanderbilt - pre Roosevelt - all by himself had greater financial capability at his peak than the US Government at the time. The difference, is back then there was wide-spread and growing fear of the combinations and would-be monopolies. Today, Americans are relatively unconcerned by Microsoft (desktop), Google (search, android), Walmart & Amazon (retail), Intel (microprocessors), Facebook (social), Cisco, Boeing, etc.
- pyroinferno 9y agoWhy leave it at American companies? The Dutch East India Company was far more powerful and bigger than any company seen today.
- bb611 9y agoBeyond that, it was more powerful than many (maybe most) modern governments. It was an international power unto itself.
- tdb7893 9y agoHere is an smbc comic making fun of this phenomenon. http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3794 http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?id=3794