Thursday, September 17, 2009

Banks are bigger problem now: Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson joined Bloomberg TV this week to discuss everyone's favorite "too big to fail" firms, the major US banks.

Key takeaways from this interview? The government bailouts and rescue interventions have resulted in an even greater concentration of assets in the banking sector, while leaving us with the larger problem of moral hazard, as the large banking firms are even more "too big to fail" now.

Lots more to hear from Niall in this interview; see especially his comments on the taxpayer guaranteed backstop provided to the "too big to fails" ("TBTFs") and the problems this will present down the road.

Related articles and posts:

1. Why a Lehman deal would not have saved us - Niall Ferguson.

2. Jim Rogers: more banks should have failed - Finance Trends.