The concern is that permitting, say, an insurance company to fail would endanger the health of its conglomerate parent, which would in turn threaten a crisis of confidence in the entire financial sector. But these amorphous terms have no concrete meaning. There is still time to stop H.R. 10. Some members of the Senate may be ready to stand up for consumer and taxpayer interests and block movement of the bill. And the Clinton administration, which favors the essential provisions of the legislation, is threatening to veto it over regulatory turf fights that are important but less consequential than core concerns about economic concentration.
Civil disobedience can be a compelling way to speak truth to power.
But the Citicorp-Travelers merger and H.R. 10 are more about power riding roughshod over truth.