Professor Edward Kane:

I like to define it as too difficult to fail and unwind. It is, therefore, not necessarily a question of size, but also the the complication of the firm. It would be big, of course, but it would also be so complex that it would be administratively difficult. Another consideration is a political one. The institution may have such a strong political base - getting back to the question of operating through politics - that it would cause the head of the regulatory agency an awful lot of trouble, and influence, perhaps, the reappointment, or the future employability, of the head. The next question is "how to assess". I believe "how to assess" is trying to tease out, from stock market and other trading information, the value of the taxpayers' stake in the firm. That should be serviced in some way by a dividend, but in any case of that surging, there is a problem. Something has to be done about it. If one is pricing it, it is not likely to surge. To the extent it is being underpriced, then one has to worry about it. Right now, zero is a severe underpricing.