Citibank Breakup

In 1985 I bought a yearling colt that was half Thoroughbred and half Percheron. He grew and grew until he reached 18 hands tall. A hand is four inches so this meant he was six feet tall at his withers, the highest point of a horse's back. He weighed about 1800 pounds. He is a very friendly, sweet, intelligent horse. But anytime he does something it resonats. He bumped into my husband one time and Larry was limping for six weeks after that. My big horse would lean on a gate or fence and I'd have to buy a new one or fix the old one. He was a very expensive horse to maintain. He is now retired at a friend's place and still racks up the bills because of his sheer size.

I trained him in dressage and as he reached his middle years people would remark what a wonderful horse he was. As he got older the question arose "Will you buy another Thorcheron?"

My answer, "I wouldn't take a million dollars for Doc, but I wouldn't give a red cent for another one like him." Much as I love my big horse I learned he was more trouble and expense than I wanted to continue to manage.

The point of the above tale is to point out that big can be wonderful, but it is also hazardous and expensive. And letting money organizations such as Citibank get too big is costly and dangerous to all of us.

For many decades, after the debacles of the 1800's and early 1900's we had strong laws in effect that prevented any one bank from growing too large. Those laws insured that banks stayed local and if any failed it only affected a small portion of the population.

Sometime after the 1970's the big money people began agitating for less strict laws. Once those laws were eased and they could grow their banks larger and larger they began dismantling the regulations that oversaw banks.

We had a terrible crash of Savings and Loans companies in the 1980's because of deregulation, but did we learn? Not even. Instead the stampede to increase the size, power and complexity of banks continued apace. Now we have yet more examples of just why all those anti-trust laws and regulations were enacted after the crashes of the 1890's and 1930's.

It is a sad fact that most people cannot be trusted to do the right thing if there isn't a reward for doing the right thing and a penalty for doing the wrong thing. There has to be accountability for everyone or someone will take advantage and the whole thing will come crashing down.

While some people will make mistakes out of carelessness others, like Madoff, will do their best to grab as much as they can no matter what happens to anyone else. Friends, family and country mean less than nothing to someone like this as long as they get theirs.

This type of person can be found everywhere at every level of society, but most do not have the clout to harm so many. Be it a company such as AIG, Goldman Sachs, or Citibank, or an individual like Madoff, there must be watch dogs to keep them in line. Those who are watchers must have the power of the law behind them to enforce the regulations they are supposed to be enforcing.

The laws and regulations were dismantled for the benefit of the few. It is 'way past time for them to be put back into place. Big isn't better. Big just means more damage can be done.