by Robert Reich:'An acquaintance from my days in the Clinton administration,

[stopbush]

5. Oh, I think Barney Frank knows what's in Dodd Frank

and what it means.

Robert Reich does not.

"Too big to fail" is a bullshit position. The problem in 2008 wasn't banks having too many assets, it was having too few assets, ie: becoming insolvent because they invented crap investment products that were over-leveraged.

"Too big to fail" is a position that there is something inherently wrong or evil about banks or other financial institutions having too many assets, to the point where if they become insolvent, they cannot be allowed to fail and are then bailed out by the Feds.

But Dodd Frank has safeguards in place that keep that from happening. If a bank reaches a certain point, they are taken over by the feds, their assets are liquidated, their investors are paid and they go out of business. End of the offending bank and avoidance of another financial crisis. Reich doesn't seem to understand this.

And- as Frank also points out - no one advocating a "too big to fail" position has assigned a dollar amount to what "too big" is. Typical empty rhetoric without a plan or a program to back up or institute such a policy. Lots of teeth grinding with no specifics whatsoever.