The market no longer determines what is adequate capital for the banking industry. Following generations of taxpayer support and government involvement, politicians, regulators, and lobbyists have supplanted the market in determining what counts as capital, how it is calculated, and how much is enough. This artificial mechanism has resulted in a decline of both the level and quality of capital among the world’s largest banks. Michael Barr, Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve (Fed), recently initiated a holistic review of current capital standards, noting that while bank capital levels have improved, they remain too low. His statement was hardly complete before Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and other industry lobbyists began criticizing such a review as unnecessary, arguing that capital levels for the largest banks are extraordinarily robust, adding the necessary caveat “relative to their pre-financial crisis levels.”