That was the proposition being debated on the Intelligence Squared podcast.

Moderated by ABC News’ John Donvan, this debate featured Richard Fisher–President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and Simon Johnson–MIT Professor of Entrepreneurship, who argued for the motion; and Douglas Elliott–Fellow in Economic Studies for the Brookings Institution and Paul Saltzman, President of the Clearing House Association, who argued against the motion.

Here is description of the debate:

To prevent the collapse of the global financial system in 2008, Treasury committed 245 billion in taxpayer dollars to stabilize America’s banking institutions. Today, banks that were once “too big to fail” have only grown bigger, with JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs holding assets equal to over 50% of the U.S. economy. Were size and complexity at the root of the financial crisis, or do calls to break up the big banks ignore real benefits that only economies of scale can pass on to customers and investors?