Before the State of the Union, one unlikely pair of senators was engaged in lively conversation: Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Johnson.

According to Johnson, the two were discussing “too big to fail,” and what could be done. “We were talking about what we need to do to get the taxpayers off the hook for these large financial institutions,” Johnson says. “I’m interested in ending ‘too big to fail.’ I think she is too.”


“The only people who should care whether J. P. Morgan loses $5 billion on the trading desk in London is J. P. Morgan management and their shareholders,” Johnson elaborated. “American taxpayers shouldn’t.”

Dodd-Frank, Johnson argued, was a “a monstrosity that’s actually putting community banks out of business” and hasn’t had the intended effect on the big banks. “I was talking to Senator Warren about that. I think we’re kind of on the same page there,” he remarks.