|
North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Too big to fail?
In message <[email protected]>, Scott Brim writ es: >On Thu, Jan 18, 2001 at 04:31:58PM -0800, Sean Donelan wrote: >> >> Remember during the last deregulation cycle. When the Savings & Loan >> and Bank industries were "deregulated" one open question was: are >> there banks considered too big to fail. The problem with that doctrine >> is it warps management's risk analysis. Instead of appropriate investments, >> management makes excessively risky decisions in an attempt to achieve >> short-term returns and maximize shareholder value. >> >> Is PG&E too big to fail? > >But what would that mean? All the infrastructure is there, the only >issues are cash flow and regulation of prices. If PGE was diddling with >its infrastructure, lending out towers to shady businesses and such, >there might be a parallel :-). During the 19th century, there were a number of railroad bankruptcies. The courts ruled that since all of their assets were good for only one thing -- a railroad -- the only choice was to keep the corporation going. The real change, per the article I cited, is who makes the hard decisions. --Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb
|