Under the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law, large nonbank firms may be declared systemically important because their failure will cause a systemic breakdown. In effect, this amounts to a government statement that these firms are too big to fail.

On January 14, the Administration proposed that large banks (those with consolidated assets above $50 billion) be taxed to reimburse the federal government (and thus taxpayers) for the costs of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

The Troubled Asset Relief Program should be run like a business with a goal of returning as much of the involuntary investment as possible to its owners--the taxpayers--along with a reasonable overall profit.

Many lawmakers are being punished for their support of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, but TARP will go down as one of the great heroic acts of our lifetimes, as an act of triage that saved the economy and perhaps the entire global economy.

The new Public-Private Investment Program looks similar to, and faces the same technical challenges as, plans proposed by then-treasury secretary Paulson last year.

Public attitudes about the stimulus package reveal underlying doubt about the ability of government to turn things around.

Purchasing "toxic" assets is no easy solution.

Insolvent institutions should be taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.