Banking Industry -Too Big to Fail, "Mark to Market", and Procurement of Treasury Bonds: 

Too big to fail: We need to fix this situation. Nothing should be too big to fail. If a bank is so big that we (the United States) can't afford to let it fail because of its probable adverse affects on the economy, it needs to be broken up. NOTE: An example of breaking up companies is Teddy Roosevelt back in the early 1900s. Believe they called it trustbusting.

Once the "too big to fail" banks are broken up, banks will know that a bail-out is no longer an option, and they will exercise due discretion in their business transactions.

Housing Bubble:  Indeed, the housing bubble that caused "The Great Recession" was related to overvalued housing prices and bad mortgages - and not George Bush/Corporate greed - as Democrats are prone to say. The over valued housing prices set us up for a fall, but it was the bad mortgages - a plan pushed by our federal government since the Clinton administration that forced banks to make loans to people who would not normally qualify for home loans that caused the recession. While getting people in their own homes is a laudable goal, getting people who can't afford their mortgage payments in a home was a recipe for disaster, and is what caused the recession. Some Democrats like to blame the practice of bundling of mortgages as one of the main causes of the recession. Untrue, bundling good mortgages is not a problem, and would never cause a problem, it's the bundling of bad mortgages that created a mess.

"Mark to "Market":   "Mark to Market" is an accounting method whereby financial institutions value holdings/loans at their current market value, and utilize these "fair value" determinations to determine whether the financial institutions are solvent or not, i.e., if the bank, based on the values of its debts and assets (holdings) in a positive or negative status?  The problem with this method of accounting is that during tumultuous domestic/international market scenarios, demand can fall way off, and drive market value way down, and this new "fair value" will then be far beneath what it would otherwise be for the bank's holdings (mortgages/stocks).  Based on this dramatically reduced "fair value" of its holdings, the bank may then be in a negative (bankrupt) status on its accounting records.

Tumultuous domestic/international events - such as the housing Bubble bursting in 2008, Katrina in 2005, ..............  like Israel's impending attack on Iran in 2013?,  cause extreme variations - typically reducing "fair values" of bank holdings dramatically, and causing insolvency for many banks.  These financial crises can occur at any time,  for a variety of reasons, and all can have very real and negative impact on the economy of the United States, and of the entire world.  We need to change "mark to market" accounting practices.  We cannot allow every significant  fluctuation in the markets due to unforeseen events to cause a financial crises, loss of confidence, decreased gross domestic product, and potential recessions.  Financial institutions should not be insolvent unless they cannot cover (pay) for debts owed.  "Mark to market" should not be the determining factor for bank insolvency.

 In order to avoid financial catastrophes in economic downturns, it's far safer to use Historical Cost Accounting ("mark to "cost") - i.e., determine asset value based on original cost rather than on current "fair value" ("mark to market").

Procurement of Treasury Bonds:  With our snowballing deficit, the Federal Government is in desperate need of loans to cover our out-of-control spending.  Since it's always preferable to be in control of your own destiny, consider domestic creditors to be far superior to international creditors (e.g. - loans  from China).  However, the practice of the Federal Government giving low interest loans to banking institutions, who then turn around and buy Treasury Notes - which pay a higher interest rate than what the banks got their loan for, is financial insanity.  It's like we're paying the banks a fee to loan us our own money.  NOTE:  Besides, the purpose of the federal government loaning money to banks is so that they can loan money to people/institutions who wish to invest in a home or business - and not to make a profit at the taxpayers expense. 

Regulations on Treasury Notes:  The regulations on Treasury Notes should be amended to prohibit any bank that has been loaned money from the federal government from turning around and using that borrowed money to buy Treasury Notes.

Printing Money to pay our Debt:   Am absolutely not in favor of such.  We need to figure out a way to live within our means (and quickly!).  However, if the only temporary choice to be made is between providing loans to financial institutions who use our money to make a profit when loaning the money back to us -  or, to print money, think we need to opt for the latter.  At least with printing money, we aren't also out the profit the bank made on the transaction.