BrianGarst.com

JP Morgan Chase lost a lot of money – $2 billion, in fact. This is big news to financial markets, and JP Morgan’s customers, but in a free society you wouldn’t expect the political class to care too much about the individual ups and downs of private companies. Yet Democrats are already pouncing on the episode to push bigger government, and Representative Brad Miller was particularly blunt in his expressing his glee, posting the following to his Facebook page:

In the article he links he is quoted as saying:

“The gigantic size of megabanks, and the perception in the marketplace that they are too big for the government ever to permit to fail, gives them an unfair competitive advantage over smaller financial institutions that distorts the market and discourages competition.” said Miller. “The lack of competition in the banking industry, in turn, leads to ever-higher levels of risk in the system.”

Here’s a thought. If the problem is the perception that banks will be bailed out, then stop bailing them out. But Brad Miller and the big government interventionists can’t say no. That’s a government problem, not a banking problem.

The article also says his legislation would “set a series of caps on the size and reach of the nation’s ‘megabanks.'” Given the glee with which politicians seek to kneecap any business that stands too tall, how about “a series of caps on the size and reach of the nation’s” federal government, instead?

bailouts Brad Miller JP Morgan Chase