Today, we learned tht Citibank is the next company in need of aid. What irks me the most about the need for these bailouts is the argument used to justify the aid. You know, the one that says if we fail the recession will be worse and it might lead to a depresion. I have little doubt that this is true for some of these companies, but my gripe is how did we let ourselves get into a situation where these mammouth companies can use the fear of default as a weapon to obtain loans and bailouts? And, what can we do about it?
It doesn't look like a free market to me. Now I know there really isn't a true free market in any industry, but what we are seeing today is a far cry from where we should be. When companies are so big that their demise can impact the entire American economy, then we need to start thinking about breaking these companies up. In some ways, this isn't much different than the late 19th and early 20th Centuries with the large trusts. The trusts had too great an impact on the market and were broken up. I'd like to see the same done with these massive companies of today.