What a novel concept…

by Dave on November 9, 2009

Senator Sanders, a tip-of-the-hat to you.

via Contingent Capital

{ 6 comments }

1 Mark Thompson November 9, 2009 at 11:45 am

Whatever my thoughts about this proposal in theory and in concept (I like it), the amount of power this provides the Executive disturbs the living daylights out of me. This is something that requires a hell of a lot more than a one-paragraph definition if it were to have any kind of neutral application. Otherwise, the way this is currently worded, the Executive would have sole and absolute discretion (subject at best to an arbitrary and capricious standard of review) to say which businesses are and are not so big that they should be broken up.

2 Dave November 9, 2009 at 12:41 pm

I think I was more pleased with the principle than the actual legal language.

For some strange reason, every time I think of TBTF, I think of Fannie and Freddie ;). With the expectation of Uncle Sam stepping in, it’s not unreasonable to suggest they’d enjoy the same cost of capital advantages that Freddie and Fannie did.

Good points though.

3 Mark Thompson November 9, 2009 at 1:13 pm

Totally. It’s weird to me, sometimes, that the Dem/left-of-center Senators I tend to like the most are the ones that are the furthest left.

4 Dave November 9, 2009 at 1:18 pm

I had a chuckle thinking about that myself. I mean, me, Mr. Corporate Shill-Hate Unions-Screw Granny-Death Panel Lovin’ Libertarian agreeing with Bernie Sanders?

I mean…seriously…you’d think someone put a gun to my head. ;)

5 Katherine November 9, 2009 at 2:05 pm

I’m for it. Needs to encode a better definition of “too big to fail” (eg, “cannot control more than X amount of Y financial industry), but other than that, good.

6 Jaybird November 9, 2009 at 2:27 pm

“Has donated at least $X to candidate’s re-election fund.”

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