volcker: New Government Powers Won't Be Able to Dismantle Megabanks

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker believes the centerpiece of the administration's effort to end Too Big To Fail -- the perception that the nation's largest banks will always be bailed out when in trouble -- will not actually apply to megabanks.

In a September 2009 speech on Wall Street, President Barack Obama said that the administration's preferred way to dismantle failing systemically-important firms is a new "resolution authority" outside the normal bankruptcy process. The authority, which would enable regulators to wind down failing financial behemoths, "is intended to put an end to the idea that some firms are 'too big to fail,'" Obama said.

His top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, has said that ending Too Big To Fail is the administration's "central objective" in reforming the financial system, and that resolution authority is the "most crucial" part of that plan.