Jim Pethokoukis hypes Huntsman's new plan for Wall Street:
Huntsman is the only GOP 2012er to have moved beyond "repeal Dodd Frank" (which sounds like a return-to-the-status-quo) and fashioned a serious and comprehensive — and bold — financial reform plan. … Reforming the financial system is low-hanging fruit that Republicans have been reluctant to pick. Huntsman just did.
Joseph Lawler adds:
Inevitably some banks will become too big to fail, or at least big enough to leave the market uncertain as to whether the government will allow them to fail. The government should have a clear and understandable process already in place for resolving such firms in a moment of crisis, so that the uncertainty is reduced. … Huntsman is doing Republicans a favor by criticizing the public's implicit subsidization of large banks — an issue that has both technocratic and populist appeal. Hopefully his plan will be taken as a challenge by the other candidates.
Ezra Klein is also intrigued:
This is similar to the Obama administration’s thinking. They oppose breaking up the big banks or taxing financial transactions tax, but they support a “financial crisis responsibility fee”: a tax on the largest banks to pay back the cost of TARP. Huntsman takes this a bit further, in that his tax would presumably be ongoing. But not much further. … Huntsman is inching towards an interesting and perhaps even courageous position on financial reform.
Mike Konczal is skeptical:
I hope the GOP moves more in this direction generally. But there’s a core missing in it. When it comes to “ending Too Big To Fail” it actually punts on the conservative policy debates, which is a shame. There’s a reference to “Explore reforms now being considered by the U.K. to make the unwinding of its biggest banks less risky for the broader economy” but it is sort of late in the game for this level of vagueness on what we mean by “unwinding.” That unwinding part is a major part of the debate. Especially if you say that you want to repeal Dodd-Frank and put into place a system for taking down large financial firms – well, “unwinding” the biggest financial firms is what a big chunk of Dodd-Frank does.
Related coverage here.
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