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Senators Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) left, and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) right. Shelby has fought to put an end to "too big to fail."

The U.S. Senate passed its version of Wall Street reform last week by a vote of 59-39 in a complex 1616-page bill that gives massive new powers to the Treasury, Federal Reserve and FDIC in addition to creating five new oversight bodies. It is still unclear if the bill ends "too big to fail."

In late November 2008, the free market was in the process of holding Citigroup, the nations second largest bank, accountable for years of misplaced priorities, poor management and excessive risk taking.  The company's stock had sunk to $3.77 per share even as the shares of other large banks such as JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and the Bank of New York Mellon were holding relatively steady.