After an unwelcome hiatus, I am back. Readers of this blog will note that I make an effort to keep you updated as to the status of bank failures in this country. I do this because we are all familiar with massive bank failure and the stock market crash of the Great Depression or more accurately, the Republican induced Great Depression. Bank failures have a direct influence on your prosperity and are an undeniable barometer of just how healthy our economy is in reality despite the government, mainstream media and corporate hype.
There are 7650 commercial banks in the U. S., the top ten have $11 Trillion out of $13 Trillion in total banking assets. This is a very important statistic as the failure of small and medium sized banks have less of an influence on the economy as the failure of even one large bank. Many banks are insolvent, being allowed to keep two sets of books that allow them to ignore their real estate problem while crossing their fingers and hoping the foreclosure crisis will end. It will not end any time soon, 2014 is the most optimistic forecast of the bottoming out of the foreclosure crisis. I have even read of ten to fourty year duration of our real estate woes. I will keep away from the political aspects of foreclosure and banking in this post, there is plenty of time for that in future posts. Deceptive government figures can only hold back reality for so long.
The statistics are:
- In the five years before 2008 only 11 banks failed.
- In 2008 25 banks failed.
- In 2009 140 banks failed.
- In 2010 157 banks failed.
- So far in 2011 34 banks failed .
- According to the FDIC, over 700 banks remain at risk of failure.
Bank of America, according to a B of A inside source is splitting off into two banks, one for the "good" assets one for the "bad" assets, the ratio of good to bad is the figure that I want to know. What are the other big banks doing? Probabally the same. This is not a good sign, it tells us that the banks know the future without having to resort to the reading of the tea leaves, it tells us they are seeing "reality" and trying to minimize the damage and most probably setting themselves up for a justification for their next round of bailouts by the Federal Government.
Bernake's QE II has been a failure and is supposed to end at the end of June, the banks are preparing for no QE III but they will probably get it. The Quantitative Easement programs are a continued bailout to the banks, it has done nothing to ease unemployment as it was described to do. All it has done is put cash(printed cash) on the books of the banks for the appearance of record profits and the increase of CEO salaries and bonuses. The only place "green shoots" are growing is in bank vaults and the soil they sprout from is contaminated.
We are in a deflationary depression and by the end of the year this will become aparent to anyone with eyes and ears.
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Update April 30, 2011..............From Has the Great American Apocalypse Begun?
by Richard Clark
On 60 Minutes, analyst Meredith Whitney, who accurately predicted the global credit crunch, predicted that up to 100 MAJOR American cities are likely to go bust THIS YEAR!
The likelihood of this new banking crisis is so explosive, Washington is doing everything in its power to keep it under wraps. It's so hush-hush, the Treasury has deliberately spread blatant disinformation about the strength of our banks. Time after time, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and his associates have announced that US banks are "out of the woods" and "gaining strength."
The truth is, however, that the FDIC has a list of banks that are on the brink, and that list is growing by leaps and bounds. However, the FDIC refuses to reveal the names of those banks. Those names are THE best kept secret in the financial world. Insiders, however, have told Martin Weiss that they include Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo, SunTrust, Regions Bank, and Capital One. Altogether, more than 2,000 US banks and thrifts are approaching insolvency.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Has-the-Great-American-Apo-by-Richard-Clark-110430-275.html
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Thom Hartmann: " Western European countries such as France, Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Finland, Ireland and Italy all showed higher productivity rates than those of the United States in the two decades of 1970-1990, yet all had much higher income taxes, particularly on the most rich. "
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Hang onto your ass, for it may be all that is left you!
Good Luck
KAK
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