Too Bad

From JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, in the Washington Post:

But ending the era of “too big to fail” does not mean that we must somehow cap the size of financial-services firms. Scale can create value for shareholders; for consumers, who are beneficiaries of better products, delivered more quickly and at less cost; for the businesses that are our customers; and for the economy as a whole. Artificially limiting the size of an institution, regardless of the business implications, does not make sense. The goal should be a regulatory system that allows financial institutions to meet the needs of individual and institutional customers while ensuring that even the biggest bank can be allowed to fail in a way that does not put taxpayers or the broader economy at risk.

Thanks for playing, sir, but nobody’s buying. I have been a strong proponent of the free market and an opponent of regulation for a long time. And I still am, in many industries. But not in yours, sir. That you would have people believe that the federal government will simply let big banks fail flies in the face of economics, politics and the history of human behavior.