AT CNBC, SKEPTICISM ON BIG BANKS:

Mega institutions (financial institutions and insurance companies come to mind) that become TOO BIG TO MANAGE are likely to become TOO BIG TO FAIL.

It is impossible for top management to effectively monitor what is happening in all the nooks and crannies which have proven themselves able to bring down the largest Goliaths. And the Boards of Directors? Too friendly, too close, not independent enough, chosen as “buddies” rather than for skills needed. They have for the large part failed to perform. Chris (“I still can’t find my Countrywide mortgage documents”) Dodd’s wife serves on many boards. Her consulting company has NO clients. Just one of many many possible examples of inappropriate Board appointments.

I tend to agree that institutions that are too big to fail are too big to exist.

KEITH HENNESSEY: Understanding the President’s CAFE decision. Excerpt: “NHTSA estimated that a similar option would cost almost 150,000 U.S. auto manufacturing jobs over five years.”

RON BAILEY: Cap-and-Trade Delusions: Proponents need to stop pretending cap-and-trade will cost nothing and create tons of jobs.

A ROUNDUP OF THIS SEASON’S cancelled TV shows.

BAD NEWS FOR HARRY REID: Poll: Reid’s Re-Election Numbers Don’t Add Up.

MICHAEL BARONE: Why the U.S. should listen to India’s voters.

IN TENNESSEE, A DUMB IDEA: Get a ticket, get fingerprinted.

ATTITUDES TOWARD FANNIE MAE, circa 1993. What new financial disasters are being created now?

MEGAN MCARDLE: California is hosed: “California is completely, totally, irreparably hosed. And not a little garden hose. More like this. Their outflow is bigger than their inflow. You can blame Republicans who won’t pass a budget, or Democrats who spend every single cent of tax money that comes in during the booms, borrow some more, and then act all surprised when revenues, in a totally unprecedented, inexplicable, and unforeseaable chain of events, fall during a recession. . . . Whoever is to blame, the state was bound to go broke one day, and hey, today’s that day! There is a surprisingly sizeable blogger contingent arguing that we have to bail them out because however regrettable the events that lead here, we now have no choice. But actually, we do have a choice: we could let them go bankrupt. And we probably should.”

STIMULUS! Responsible credit card users to subsidize deadbeats.

That seems to be the general pattern . . . .

CALIFORNIA: Voters overwhelmingly reject tax increases.

But a rule capping state officials’ salaries when there’s a deficit passed. As California goes, so goes the nation?

UPDATE: A warning? “Politicians be forewarned: the public’s tolerance for tax hikes even in an overwhelmingly liberal state is non-existent. The president and Congress shouldn’t bank on running up the tab and handing the bill to the taxpayers. The taxpayers might just vote ‘no’ on all of them.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: What next?

An administration running auto companies for the benefit of the UAW and its political viability in the Rust Belt undoubtedly considers the Golden State “too big to fail.” After all, the New York Daily News headline would write itself: “Obama to California: Drop Dead.”

However, bailouts are unpopular. Many Americans will chafe just as much at the prospect of paying to bail out California’s decades of inept govenment as they do at paying to bail out GM’s decades of inept management. Obama would bail out California to hold onto those electoral votes, but he will have to worry about how many he loses in the process.

Indeed.

A LETTER TO Charlie Crist.

IS THE CURRENT STOCK RALLY JUST THE RESULT OF central banks printing money?

OH, GOODY: GPS System Close to Breakdown.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, MINISTERS OF TRUTH: “It is quite astounding that the mainstream liberal media — NY Times, Washington Post, NPR, PBS, Time, Newsweek, etc. — has simply offered no substantive criticism of Obama’s flips on renditions, military tribunals, wiretaps, intercepts, Iraq, or — given their past fury over the Bush deficits — the Obama plan to run up more red ink in a year than Bush did in eight. . . . Quite scary, all this chest-thumping about tough journalistic integrity of 2001-8 suddenly devolving into, ‘Hey everyone, we can reassure you that the Emperor really does have clothes on.'”

HAS ANYBODY SEEN SANDY BERGER LATELY? Sensitive Data Missing From National Archives. “The National Archives lost a computer hard drive containing massive amounts of sensitive data from the Clinton administration, including Social Security numbers, addresses, and Secret Service and White House operating procedures, congressional officials said Tuesday.” Nothing in the story to suggest that there’s any connection to Norman Hsu’s conviction. But some people should be fired based on what it says about data security. Prediction: No one will be.

IT’S ALSO STUPID AND SILLY THAT IT TOOK HIM THIS LONG TO FIGURE IT OUT: Anderson Cooper Says “Teabagging” Comment Was “Stupid, Silly”.

RUNNING: An exercise for lean times?

JESSE WALKER: The Swine Flu panic that wasn’t. “The fear of panic—actual panic—has shaped public policy in unfortunate ways. During a disaster, it’s not uncommon for officials to hold useful information close to their vests because they don’t want to ‘spread panic,’ even though nine decades of research have established that the public almost always remains calm in such a crisis. . . . It’s not as though there haven’t been any destructive overreactions to the H1N1 flu. It’s just that they’ve come from officials, not the general public. “

NOT IN TIME FOR SWINE FLU: Progress on a universal flu vaccine.

A TRAILER FOR the new Sherlock Holmes movie.

FROM FRANK J., a meditation on America’s future. “Republicans have the potential for lots of gains by taking a strong stance against ape-men and killer robots.”

SWINE FLU VACCINE looking harder.

DAVID BERNSTEIN ON MEDICAL INNOVATION: “I don’t have the expertise to discuss the various health care reform proposals that are being bandied about, but I do know that it’s important to ensure that whatever is implemented doesn’t interfere with innovation. Consider my own immediate family.”

I’VE HEARD OF “DESKTOP COMPUTING,” but this is ridiculous.