Will Dodd-Frank Protect US from Banks 'Too Big to Fail?'

Making News

Israel Centrist Party Leader to Join Netanyahu Coalition ()

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stunned Israel today by calling off early elections after forming one of the strongest coalition governments in the nation's history, with 94 out of 120 seats in the Knesset, Israeli's parliament. Joel Greenberg is a freelance reporter in Jerusalem.

Guests:

• Joel Greenberg: Jerusalem-based freelance reporter

Main Topic

Are America's Banks Still Too Big to Fail? ()

Banks that got taxpayer bailouts paid back with interest, but financial authorities are warning it could happen again. Just five banks -- Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America —now hold $8.5 trillion in assets. That's equal to 56 percent of the US economy, up from 43 percent six years ago. It's happened despite President Obama's call to "prevent the further consolidation of our financial system." Regulators are way behind in implementing new rules. Are the life-savings of depositors adequately insured? If a bank with $2 trillion takes too many risks will taxpayers have to be called on?  What's the state of public opinion on two unpopular institutions: banks and the federal government? What about Obama's promise that banks would never again be "too big to fail?"

Guests:

• David Lynch: Bloomberg News
• Jared Bernstein: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, @econjared
• Carroll Doherty: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, @pewresearch
• Scott Talbott: Financial Services Roundtable, @scottfsround
• Dennis Kelleher: Better Markets, @DennisKelleher1

Links:

• Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
• Dallas Fed Reserve on the need to end 'too big to fail'
• Lynch on banks defying Obama's 'TBTF'
• Pew Research Center on bank, auto bailouts

Reporter's Notebook

Famed Children's Author Maurice Sendak Dies at 83 ()

An 8-year old girl wrote to children's author Maurice Sendak as follows: "Dear Mr. Sendak, How much does it cost to get to where the wild things are? If it is not expensive, my sister and I would like to spend the summer there." Sendak died early today at the age of 83. Cynthia Zarin, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Yale, first met Sendak in the farmhouse he built for working deep in the woods of Connecticut.

Guests:

• Cynthia Zarin: Yale University

Links:

• Zain on Sendak and the perils of childhood (New Yorker, 2006)
• Kushner and Sendak's 'Brundibar'