Come Back Wal-Mart Bank

Remember the WalMart Bank--one of those bold new ideas of a few years back that more or less fizzled on the launching pad, the victim of consumer anxieties and (perhaps more importantly) dug-in hostility from dug-in competitors?

Wal-Mart says it isn't interested in reopening the scuffle, and perhaps with good reason--failing at the line plunge, they seem to have embarked on an end run that may reach the same goal, what with community banking partnerships and attractively-priced credit cards.

But where would we be if Wal-Mart had been in banking this last couple of years? What if we had had a huge, efficiently run, network of bank outlets that engaged in the business of, well, banking?

Silly question. We'll never know.