Posted on 07/18/2011 2:47:30 PM PDT by lbryce
Back during the financial crisis of 2008, the American people were told that the largest banks in the United States were "too big to fail" and that was why it was necessary for the federal government to step in and bail them out.
The idea was that if several of our biggest banks collapsed at the same time the financial system would not be strong enough to keep things going and economic activity all across America would simply come to a standstill. Congress was told that if the "too big to fail" banks did not receive bailouts that there would be chaos in the streets and this country would plunge into another Great Depression.
Since that time, however, essentially no efforts have been made to decentralize the U.S. banking system.
Instead, the "too big to fail" banks just keep getting larger and larger and larger. Back in 2002, the top 10 banks controlled 55 percent of all U.S. banking assets. Today, the top 10 banks control 77 percent of all U.S. banking assets. Unfortunately, these giant banks are also colossal mountains of risk, debt and leverage. They are incredibly unstable and they could start coming apart again at any time. None of the major problems that caused the crash of 2008 have been fixed. In fact, the U.S. banking system is more centralized and more vulnerable today than it ever has been before.
It really is difficult for ordinary Americans to get a handle on just how large these financial institutions are. For example, the "big six" U.S. banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo) now possess assets equivalent to approximately 60 percent of America's gross national product.
(Excerpt) Read more at theeconomiccollapseblog.com ...
Caligula: “I wish the Roman people had but a single neck.” (Presumably to make it easier for him to strangle them).
Obama: I wish the US had but a single bank.” (Presumably the better to control and extort them).
In the global socialist takeover playbook this is known as “consolidation”. Your “one neck” as it were.
At the rate they are closing and over-regulating community banks, it won’t be long until the socialistas’ dream of one government controlled megabank becomes a reality.
Earlier there was a thread discussing how Obama seems to want to tap into our 401ks and other savings and investment vehicles. I figure when that happens, there will be a huge run on the banks and investment institutions. And those institutions will fail.
Kiss my ass Obama. You aren’t getting my nest egg.
if any leftist whines to you about the growing income and wealth inequality in the USA, you can point squarely at Big Gov’t and Progressive pillars such as the Federal Reserve.
Who benefits the most from TARP? From “too big to fail?” Who best was able to game Fannie and Freddie? Who benefits when the Fed buys crappy mortgage loans from big banks? Who has the most to gain when the Fed gooses the stock market to try and stimulate the wealth-effect and demand from it?
That will allow them to control the extension of credit to everybody.
Be afraid every body.
Fractional Reserve Banking will do that to you, we should'a listened to Jefferson and Jackson instead of Hamilton and Obama.
The same guys who think this is a problem probably also are the ones who say we should go with the Canadian system... In Canada, there are only 5 banks.
How do you define banking "assets"?
How do you define banking "liabilities"?
How do you define banking "risk"?
Too big to fail? Or Too big to let fail?
That’s only 7.7% each. In an age of conglomeration where most markets are controlled by 3 primary competitors banking is actually surprisingly diverse.
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