To be sure, the effects of the banking crisis, as well as the ongoing pace of consolidation within the industry, have reduced the total number of banking organizations by more than a third since 1980...The new firms come into existence often to replace old firms that were not willing or able to take on the risks associated with high-growth strategies. This replacement of stagnating firms with dynamic new firms--what the economist Joseph Schumpeter called the "perennial gale of creative destruction"--is at the heart of our robust, growth-oriented economy. It is this freedom to take on risk that characterizes our economy and, by extension, our banking system. Legislation and regulation of banks, in turn, generally should not aim to curtail the predilection of businesses and their banks to take on risk--so long as the general safety and soundness of our banking system is maintained.