When Adam Smith talked about “rational self interest” and competitive markets he envisioned many consumers interested in buying goods and services from many producers. This “free market” system would best serve the private and public good. He was not talking about producers, companies, being too big to fail.

This is a major problem in today's economy. We lost our way in regards to allowing competitive markets becoming oligopolistic markets. The financial institutions that are here to serve our needs have gotten so big, and have such a huge impact on our markets, that the public sector is forced to step in and save them because of the irreparable harm that would be caused by having them no longer in the market.

Everyone is talking about reforming the "system". A major part of that reform is to break up the size of our financial institutions Make each of them small enough, relative to the size of our economy, that we yawn as one of them cease to exist. This will result in them no longer counting on the taxpayer to bail them out and will provide the added benefit of keeping the compensation of the scoundrels running these companies from being ludicrous.  Small is Good!!