Break Up the Banks

President Barack Obama delivered a stern and badly needed warning to General Motors (GM) and Chrysler about the need to come up with a credible turnaround plan, or prepare for a bankruptcy restructuring. But sadly, the President wasn't equally blunt when he summoned the nation's top bankers to the White House the other day for a kaffeeklatsch. Rather than simply urging the bankers to support his Administration's plan for reviving the financial system, Obama should have been far tougher with the chieftains of finance, telling them to break up their firms or stand aside and let the federal government do it.