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In 1991, Senator Dodd insisted on reducing the quality of collateral Wall Street would need when borrowing from the Fed.

Massive government bailouts of failed firms such as Citigroup and General Motors have already served to undermine the concept of effective credit risk management, one of the fundamental pillars of capitalism.  Now, some in Washington and Wall Street want to go even further. 

Two weeks ago, Senator Christopher Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and long-time influential Democratic senator from the state of Connecticut, circulated a 1,100 page bill that would grant more power to the Federal Reserve and FDIC to bail out more companies when they get into trouble.