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Friday, October 30, 2009

U.S. Seeks Power To Force Even Strong Banks To Shrink


WASHINGTON -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday that his proposal to overhaul banking rules would give the government the ability to order even healthy companies to "shrink and separate" if their size or scope threatened the broader economy.

His comments were the starkest admission yet from the Obama administration that the regulatory revamp working through Congress could lead to a drastic reshaping of financial institutions. That reflects a growing sentiment among some policy makers around the world, who believe the best way to prevent banks from being "too big to fail" is to prevent them from being big in the first place.

The financial crisis has redrawn U.S. banking in the past two years, with several of the country's largest firms collapsing into bankruptcy or into the arms of competitors. The result has been consolidation. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. controlled a combined 33% of U.S. deposits as of June 30, up from 22% at the end of 2008, according to SNL Financial.

Such market dominance has reinforced a view that some companies will never be allowed to falter, even if rescue comes at great expense to taxpayers, because the broader economic shock would be devastating. Critics also argue that the size disparity allows large companies to borrow money more cheaply and box out competitors.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They are going to take control of everything unless we stop them. They have no regard for the Constitution or the American people. We have got to rid ourselves of them. Hopefully, it will happen peacefully at the polling booth. If not, get your guns ready to roll.

Anonymous said...

LOCK and LOAD is the only way you are going to stop this now the poles are to far away to do any good.