Legendary investor George Soros has called for a radical break-up of banks that are “too big to fail”
BBC NEWS
January 27, 2010
He also backed US President Barack Obama’s proposed reforms to limit the size of banks at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Speaking at a private lunch, Mr Soros told journalists that Wall Street bankers opposing Mr Obama’s plans were “tone-deaf”.
Other bankers at the event, however, warned against more regulation.
The boss of Barclays Capital, Bob Diamond, said he had “seen no evidence … to suggest that shrinking banks and making banks smaller and narrower is the answer.”
Other bankers, like Jacob Frenkel of JPMorgan Chase, have said they were worried about “bad regulation”.
‘Goldman in Somalia’
Analysing attempts to overcome the crisis, Mr Soros had plenty of praise for Mr Obama’s plan to split big banks – separating their commercial banking bits and their investment arms. …
And one of the bankers comments reproduced here:
The boss of Barclays Capital, Bob Diamond, said he had “seen no evidence … to suggest that shrinking banks and making banks smaller and narrower is the answer.”
The boss is likely correct in saying what he said. No one has THE answer to the current disaster produced by the neocon government. No one had THE answer in the 30’s when the Republicans presided over their classic economic disaster – the GREAT DEPRESSION.
Sitting on one’s duff, waiting for THE answer is likely a recipe for failure.
America has experienced what big banks can do to America’s economy. It’s about more than banks. Its about America. And banks in America are part of America. Banks are not an island.
Common sense says do something about the size of banks. Giving GREED a chance in almost any industry is likely to produce the same result. Trying to extinguish GREED in human beings will likely fail.
And Mr. Bush’s deregulation of the financial industry proved what most of the world already knew – putting a pile of money in front of a human being and telling that human being to SIT will likely fail.
Banks that were too big to fail, deregulation and greed caused the crash of America’s economy. It shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out where to apply common sense in the search for a solution to the problem. The first two items in the list are in the domain of government. The third item in the list – greed – is perhaps in the domain of religion?
America already has enough information to start on a solution to the crash of its economy. And the Obama administration, while fighting off attacks by Al-Qaeda and the neocons is still focused.
[The original neocon, Ronald Reagan, fired 11,000 control tower workers and told them to “never come back no mo”. The American voter has good reason to apply the Reagan solution to the present day neocons.]
[And for the banker worried about bad regulation - that's what we have right now!]
Tags: bad regulation, break-up of big banks, george soros, president barack obama, too big to fail, wall street bankers
