Ex-Citi CEO Sandy Weill said on CNBC Squawk Box that the too big to fail banks should be broken up to protect taxpayers.  This is huge and we can only hope that others who were in the forefront of deregulation and laying the groundwork for the 2007-2009 crisis are rethinking their prior indefensible positions. 

And, remember, he’s not an outlier on this subject.  Many other thoughtful, experienced people have come to the same conclusion.  Watch here for a photo gallery of others.

Also, don’t listen to those who say this is too “simplistic” or otherwise pretend to discredit these arguments. Notice first that they don’t directly address the substance of the basis for breaking up the too big to fail banks.  And, they usually attack arguments not make,like, breaking them up is all you have to do.  Of course, it’s not all you have to do.  There are lots of other things in addition to breaking them up that are necessary to protect the American people, but one very important part of that would be to break up the too big to fail banks. 

I haven’t heard one critic rebut the substantive argument that breaking up the too big to fail banks as part of a multi-part strategy for protecting the American people wouldn’t work and make sense. Now, those arguments will come, but I’d bet only those directly or indirectly on Wall Street’s payroll will make them – that will be just more of the spin and fog they’ve used to confuse these issues ever since they caused the financial crisis.

Watch the video here