question of the day

Inspired by this column, if you want some background. But here’s the question : if a business is considered “too big to fail” — meaning the government is obligated to bail it out/prop it up should it collapse — isn’t a government responsible for overseeing a competition-based market just as obligated to break it up into smaller companies before it fails, regardless of whether that decreases efficiency/profitability in the short term?  

And isn’t this more important now that we’ve completely tipped our hand and blinked in the face of multiple private sector failures? I know it sounds bad, but isn’t that more market-oriented than just allowing entire industries to aggregate, only to fail and become an arm of the federal government?

Seperate questions, I guess. Discuss.