by Laura Conaway

Deepak Pateriya sends this from the Wall Street Journal, "Obscure Tax Breaks Increase Cost of Financial Rescue." Key quote:

The most costly — and most controversial — of the moves provide billions in extra tax relief to big banks such as Wells Fargo & Co. and Spain's Banco Santander SA. Another change gives aid to investors stung by the auction-rate securities meltdown. Still another shift relaxes tax rules to help big multinationals bring back cash from overseas.

The total sums involved aren't clear, but the cost will easily amount to tens of billions of dollars, tax experts say.

Pateria add, "[I]t also obviously ties in to the question being raised by many right now about whether the Fed/Treasury/FDIC approach right now is creating even bigger firms that are a more extreme version of 'too big to fail' than we already had."