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1. The commercial banking structure in the US has changed a great deal in the past 30 years. Today the market structure of banking is that of a small set of globally huge banking behemoths (Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP/Chase, etc) and a much larger set of much smaller banks. The big banks since the 2008 crisis have been characterized as too big to fail and are even now in their own category of bank regulations. Discuss the wisdom of having financial institutions that are recognized as too big to fail and the moral hazard they present to the economy at large.

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The Financial Crisis of 2007 2009 was the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and like that event had global repercussions and consequences. Also like the earlier crisis there were significant events that were under the control of policy makers that made the 2008 crisis worse, among these were lax banking regulations on home loans, a loosing of regulations that had prevented commercial banks from engaging in speculative behavior more typically reserved for investment banks and hedge funds (see also: The London Whale). Please contribute to our discussion this week by writing on whether the crisis could have been prevented or significantly mitigated by better bank supervision.