Think we need big banks?

Simon Johnson, professor of entrepreneurship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, offers an alternative view in the pages of Bloomberg Businessweek.

Since you wrote your book 13 Bankers [in 2010], the situation of the big banks hasn’t changed much, has it?
If the banks were too big to fail in September 2008, they’re even more too big, too systemic, to fail now. We have not at all dealt with that problem.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase (JPM), says we need big banks. State the case for a smaller JPMorgan.
The London Whale.

So management can’t handle all the risks in such a big bank?
Absolutely. And Jamie is regarded as one of the best in the business.

It’s nice to know that legislators and regulators interested in “doing something” to fix the problems with banks that are too big to fail have succeeded so admirably.