Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee

Obama proposed this tax on big banks. I think it is necessary and crucial in the whole financial reform. It is not easy to see that Makiw agrees with Obama on one thing. Of course Krugman thinks this is no brainer.

....Do the bankers really not understand what happened, or are they just talking
their self-interest? No matter. As I said, the important thing looking forward is to stop listening to financiers about financial reform.

Wall Street executives will tell you that the financial-reform bill the House passed last month would cripple the economy with overregulation (it’s actually quite mild).
They’ll insist that the tax on bank debt just proposed by the Obama administration is a crude concession to foolish populism. They’ll warn that action to tax or otherwise rein in financial-industry compensation is destructive and unjustified.

But what do they know? The answer, as far as I can tell, is: not much.