"I think the only solution, really, is a more extreme solution of actually breaking up the banks, making them be much smaller, so that as they continue to get into trouble and make their risky bets, we won't have to bail them out. And the fact of the matter is, most of the large banks really are not doing much that's contributing to real investment, to job creation. There wouldn't really be that much lost if the financial sector shrunk substantially and if we broke up the banks."

~ Gerald Epstein is codirector of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) and Professor of Economics.

Is Effective Financial Regulation Possible?