Big banks should be broken up according to Citigroups Sanford Weil!

During a CNBC interview,
79-year-old Sanford Weill shocked the anchors when he said that consumer
banking units should be split from riskier investment banking units. That would
mean dismembering Citigroup as well as other big U.S. banks, like JPMorgan Chase and
Bank of America observing as others have that that too big to fail really
means to big to manage.

This is the thinking that is in line
with the banking industry's harshest critics, not its founding fathers. It's an
ironic twist coming from an empire-builder who nursed Citigroup into a
behemoth. It’s also directly opposed to
the stance of the industry's current leaders, like JPMorgan CEO Jamie
Dimon. He has been trying to convince
regulators and lawmakers of just the opposite, that big banks do not need to be
split.

Weill said radical change are
necessary if U.S.
banks are to rebuild trust and remain leaders of the world's financial system. Many
are still very upset the government bailed the big banks out. Weill criticized banks for taking on too much
debt and not providing enough disclosure about what's on their balance
sheets. "Our world hates
bankers," he said.