Nicole, the moment that it is accepted that certain financial firms are too big to fail (and they are) is the moment that we have to ask whether those firms are too big to exist. Even if in the end breaking up those businesses proves not to be the way to go (and I can see some good reasons why it may not be), there is an unanswerable case to be made that the government guarantee should be explicit, properly priced and, of course, properly policed. The fun comes when you try to agree what is meant by “properly.”