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The Business Desk with Paul Solman
Not a blog but a "q-and-a" (pronounced "quanda"), this page is about the basics of economics. Its premise: there are no stupid q's. And if some a's seem dim, take heart: I can brighten them up in response to objections, corrections, refinements. Comments on posts feature yours, and my responses. Enough of you now frequent and query the quanda that I post most every day. Haven't seen your q yet? Send it again. All a's should be taken with a shaker of sodium chloride, if not a Lot's-wife's-worth. And speaking of salt, the mustache and "hair" in the photo has a lot less of that condiment, and rather more pepper, than can be seen on TV. Think of it as time travel.

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What Can We Do About "Too Big to Fail"?

Name: Marie Warner
City & State: Bethesda, Md.

Question: What needs to happen so that we will have no companies "too big to fail"?

Paul Solman: Come up with incentives that induce big companies to slim down, or disincentives that punish them if they don't. What's startling at the moment is the consensus: "Too big to fail" is a huge problem and should be fixed. HOW to do it remains the issue, especially if it isn't done on a global scale. (Because if it isn't, offshoring is the obvious way around any new laws.)

Legislation is complicated and difficult, especially in a bifurcated democracy like ours, with business and Wall Street so influential, due to the role of money in the political process. But even so, it's surprising to me that, given the too-big-to-fail consensus, so little has been done about it.

-- Posted October 23, 2009 | Comments ( ) | Permalink

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