In message <20010118205105.A1059@localhost.co-nectschools.net>, 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