Too big to fail: Taming giants

Tim Geithner has come up with a bold idea: a “too big to fail” tax. Other countries should consider copying the US Treasury secretary’s lead. In the old days, bank regulators used to think that bigger was safer – and gave larger institutions more leeway. But the current crisis has rammed home a different point: the bigger and more intertwined an institution, the more havoc it causes when it gets into trouble. Either it gets bailed out like American International Group, Citigroup, Royal Bank of S...