G.O.P. Senators Say Some Big Banks Can Be Allowed to Fail
Published: March 8, 2009
John McCain and
Richard C. Shelby, two high-profile Republican senators, said on Sunday that the government should allow a number of the biggest American banks to fail.
?Close them down, get them out of business,? Mr. Shelby, the senior Republican on the Banking Committee, told ABC?s ?This Week With
George Stephanopoulos.? ?If they?re dead, they ought to be buried.?
While the Alabama senator did not say which banks to shutter, he suggested that
Citigroup might be on that list, saying the bank has ?always been a problem child.?
Mr. McCain, appearing on ?Fox News Sunday,? echoed that sentiment without identifying any banks. Mr. McCain, who lost the presidential election last November, also accused the
Treasury Department of avoiding the ?hard decision? to let ?these banks fail.?
Investor concern about the future of banks, including Citigroup, have been one issue weighing heavily on the stock market. Financial shares continue to be among the worst hit, despite the trillions that governments are spending to try and restore the system. Citigroup shares, for example, closed at $1.03 on Friday; two years ago, the stock was trading at $55 a share.