Dear Ben

Senators Sherrod Brown and David Vitter wrote a powerful letter to Bernanke this week. As with any good marketing letter, they make the basic point right up front:

We urge you to revisit your proposed rule and modify it so that megabanks fund themselves with proportionately more loss-absorbing capital per dollar of assets than smaller regional or community banks. The surcharge on the megabanks should be high enough that it will either incent them to become smaller or will help to ensure they can weather the next crisis without another taxpayer bailout.

Enough said.