Too big to fail = too big to exist

Here we are, the American taxpayers, bailing out the financial institutions, even though most of us had nothing to do with the misdeeds that caused their demise. It seems like a kind of collective punishment.

The justification? These institutions are "too big to fail". Allowing them to self-destruct, we are told, would so adversely affect our economy that we must not let it happen lest we write our own one-way ticket to economic Armageddon.

The solution: Break them up.

Some are doing it themselves. AIG is already voluntarily breaking itself up.

But I won't hold my breath waiting for other financial institutions to follow suit. There aren't many CEOs who would willingly forfeit portions of their empires.

So I have to agree with the new left-wing motto that if an institution is too big to fail, then it's too big to exist. And that sentiment should be enforced.

If the financial institutions won't break themselves up, the government should force them to.

How? Well, these bloated institutions are the result of the deregulation of the 1990s. Congress needs to re-regulate the industry.

And the new regulations need to be enforced.

Otherwise, there is nothing to prevent this same kind of economic catastrophe from happening again in the future.