- The US has 6,891 banks.
- There are 515 banks on the FDIC "problem bank" list.
- "There are currently over 900 publicly traded banks and thrifts with a market capitalization over $10 million. These banks have $12.4 trillion in assets and $1.4 trillion in market cap."
- The four largest account for 54 percent of the aggregate market cap.
--From a commentary at American Banker, by one "Harvard Winters," identified as "a former investment banker, writes research on banks." He must get tired of jokes about Yale Springs and Columbia Falls. BTW, no, not one of the four largest is on the "problem bank list." The reader is left to ponder whether he considers this fact reassuring.
2 comments:
" BTW, no, not one of the four largest is on the "problem bank list."
WHAT!?!?!?! Morgan Stanley, with its London Whale, and the allegations of money laundering, and the payment of billion dollar fines, and...and...
Morgan Stanley is not a problem bank?
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Very Crankily Yours,
The New York Crank
Buce informs me – well, I wasalready informed but I confused myself, so I probably ought to say he reminds me – that I am thinking in the commentary above of JP Morgan, not Morgan Stanley.
Quite right he is, although when the hydra gives two of his heads similar names (was that before they got sawed apart by Glass Steagall, or after they reconjugated with the end of Glass....oh, nevermind._
This all brings to mind, for reasons solely of rhyme, of an old Yiddish song, circa early 1900s, the title of which I'll choose to garble just a bit here as: Please Mr. Steagall make it legal.
Crankily yours,
The (very occasionally confused) New York Crank
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