The new president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis,Neel Kashkari, has gotten off to a bold start. In a speech thisweek, he warned that almost eight years after the financial crisis,the largest U.S. banks still pose a grave risk to taxpayers and thebroader economy. Dealing with this problem, he said, will require a“transformational restructuring.”

He's right that the financial system needs further reform, andit's good that he's open to radical proposals. But one thing shouldbe clear at the outset: The best way to make banks safer is alsothe simplest. Require them to finance themselves with more capitaland less debt.

Kashkari played a central role in the U.S. Treasury's efforts toshore up the financial system in 2008. He knows the terrible choicethat policy makers faced: rescue big banks at taxpayer expense, orrisk a worse disaster. He's convinced that—despite the complexpanoply of rules and mechanisms put in place since then—thegovernment will be in much the same position when the next crisishappens.