joe_momma
11th November 2010, 09:44 AM
Bank Failure Friday - a weekly event where the Banks steadfastly refuse to admit the truth (or obey the law).
As the American economy circles the drain, the banks continue to provide an illusion of stability via the miracle of QE, (not) mark to market, and off book liabilities.
A couple of factoids (to the best of my recollection) -
Less than 10 banks account for 50% of the US banking wealth
Less than 100 banks account for 80% of the US banking wealth
There are about 7,500 banks in the US - of which nearly 3,000 are in financial trouble. Large banks with the residential real estate, smaller banks exposed to retail/commercial loans.
Every Friday the FDIC pretends to be surprised and releases a list of banks that it has deemed "failed". In truth, finding banks to close should be about as hard as killing zombies at the end of "28 days" (or any other zombie movie).
Around 5 pm local time, the failed banks are announced as well as the (foolish) banks which have assumed the assets of the said failed bank. (The FDIC is having a harder time each week finding a new sucker.)
How many banks will go down this week? For the Ruprick - chose a state to be honored!
Congratulations goes out to Apparition and two others for the accurate prediction of 4 last week (sadly the MEGA-ATOMIC-WHOOPSIE failed to appear).
One can follow along at:
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html
As the American economy circles the drain, the banks continue to provide an illusion of stability via the miracle of QE, (not) mark to market, and off book liabilities.
A couple of factoids (to the best of my recollection) -
Less than 10 banks account for 50% of the US banking wealth
Less than 100 banks account for 80% of the US banking wealth
There are about 7,500 banks in the US - of which nearly 3,000 are in financial trouble. Large banks with the residential real estate, smaller banks exposed to retail/commercial loans.
Every Friday the FDIC pretends to be surprised and releases a list of banks that it has deemed "failed". In truth, finding banks to close should be about as hard as killing zombies at the end of "28 days" (or any other zombie movie).
Around 5 pm local time, the failed banks are announced as well as the (foolish) banks which have assumed the assets of the said failed bank. (The FDIC is having a harder time each week finding a new sucker.)
How many banks will go down this week? For the Ruprick - chose a state to be honored!
Congratulations goes out to Apparition and two others for the accurate prediction of 4 last week (sadly the MEGA-ATOMIC-WHOOPSIE failed to appear).
One can follow along at:
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html