Intelligence Squared US: "Breaking Up the Big Banks"

Today, banks that were once “too big to fail” have only grown bigger.

To prevent the collapse of the global financial system in 2008, the Treasury committed 245 billion in taxpayer dollars to stabilize America’s banking institutions. Today, banks that were once “too big to fail” have only grown bigger, with JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs holding assets equal to over 50% of the U.S. economy. Were size and complexity at the root of the financial crisis, or do calls to break up the big banks ignore real benefits that only economies of scale can pass on to customers and investors? Intelligence Squared US: "Breaking Up the Big Banks", airing Sunday, October 27, 2013 at 9 p.m. on AM 1370/FM-HD 91.5-2, debates this issue.

For the motion is Richard Fisher, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and Simon Johnson, Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT. Against the motion is Douglas Elliott, Fellow in Economic Studies, Brookings Institution and Paul Saltzman, President, The Clearing House Association. John Donvan, Author & Correspondent for ABC News, moderates.

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