Jon Huntsman's Big Idea

The long-shot candidate is bolder than Obama about reining in the big banks

Illustration by Hieronymus for TIME

On a calm and clear November evening in Portsmouth, N.H., Jon Huntsman--the spectral moderate in the Republican presidential race--calmly and clearly told a town meeting of several hundred people that he wanted to do something no other candidate for President, including Barack Obama, has proposed this year: break up the big banks. Specifically, he wants to impose a stiff fee on the top six banks, which hold assets that equal almost 65% of America's GDP. The money would go to reduce corporate taxes on companies in the nonfinancial sector, part of Huntsman's larger plan to revive U.S. manufacturing. "We have to...

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