On the anniversary of the end of Lehman Brothers and the public bailout of the rest of Wall Street we realize that, whilst many in Australia suffer from the effects of the recession, bank bosses continue to collect their bonuses.

It's Wall Street business as usual and little appears to have changed amongst the banks except for moral hazard--- the banks know that they will be bailed out if their risks in the finance casino turn bad and they throw the world “into chaos”. Why worry about blowing up the bank when you know the taxpayer will bail you out?

The too-big-to-fail banks have become even bigger since the global financial crisis. So what has happened to governments’ attempts to clean up their big banks? Cleaning the banks up in the sense of breaking them up? Moreover, the giant banks continue to make much of their money in trading assets, securities, derivatives and other speculative bets, the banks’ own paper and securities, and in other money-making activities which have nothing to do with traditional depository functions.

The too-big-to-fails have decreased competition in that the too-big-to-fails are actually stifling competition from smaller lenders and credit unions.