Four years since Lehman and too big to fail, banks now bigger

Second thread today in reference to a Huffington story, I sort of feel like a super tool. Oh, well.

Four Years Since Lehman Brothers, 'Too Big To Fail' Banks, Now Even Bigger, Fight Reform

But here is a safe bet, economists and financial crisis scholars say: The financial system hasn't yet been purged of greed, irrational exuberance or willful misconduct. Another crisis will come.

Great.

Wells Fargo, for example, doubled in size when it swallowed Wachovia. It now serves 70 million customers and manages one out of every six mortgage loans.

Bank of America's assets have increased to $2.1 trillion from $1.8 trillion in 2008.

JPMorgan Chase, the biggest U.S. bank, with $2.3 trillion in assets, is nearly three times as big as it was in 2002, and intends to stay that way. "There are huge benefits to size," CEO Jamie Dimon said this week. "Big banks have a function in society."

His bank, he said, "provided a port in the storm" during the crisis.

Wow, Jamie Dimon thinks huge banks serve society for the positive, I'm shocked.

After the health care overhaul law, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill, which Obama signed into law in July 2010, is probably the president's signature legislative achievement -- for better or worse.

The law, in 2,319 pages, aims to do an awful lot. It creates a new federal bureaucracy, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, to monitor the financial system for harmful products and practices. It lowers the fees that banks can charge merchants when a customer pays with a debit card. It seeks to lessen the dependence of the financial markets on credit rating agencies, which proved completely unreliable in their evaluation of financial instruments made out of mortgage loans.

Cool.

The financial services industry has also flooded Washington with lobbyists who have worked feverishly to delay, weaken or block implementation of the Dodd-Frank reforms. In the first two quarters of 2012, for example, the American Bankers Association spent $4.6 million to lobby on topics including Dodd-Frank. Over the same period, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, one of the consumer-focused groups fighting for Wall Street reform, spent less than $200,000.

Sounds fair.


Thoughts on huge banks, bailouts, regulation, crisis management on this four year anniversary of the fall of the Lehman domino?

Personally, I'm torn between completely nationalizing the banking system and an anarchist barter system. Man, I'm confused.

poor business models and practices should be allowed to fail, but lobbying doesn't allow for that.

Every-time a business is in trouble all they have to do is lobby the politicians and get some kind of bail out.

People should bank at credit unions, and large banks should be forced to break up in order to prevent "too big to fail"

Have a revenue threshold or asset holdings that would trigger a split, it would keep them smaller and more localized.

Don't count on it.

Finally, billionaire George Soros recently sold nearly all of his bank stocks, including shares of JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs. Between the three banks, Soros sold more than a million shares. Read more: Billionaires Dumping Stocks, Economist Knows Why

www.moneynews.com...

What’s equally as interesting as his sale of major financials is where Soros has shifted his money. At the same time he was selling bank stocks, he was acquiring some 884,000 shares (approx. $130 million) of Gold via the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSEARCA:GLD).

etfdailynews.com...

Originally posted by benrl
... and large banks should be forced to break up in order to prevent "too big to fail"

I absolutely agree with this.
No business should be allowed to get so big that it trashes the economy if they go under.
That's a national security issue if ever I saw one.

Originally posted by PatrickGarrow17
Second thread today in reference to a Huffington story, I sort of feel like a super tool. Oh, well.
...
Personally, I'm torn between completely nationalizing the banking system and an anarchist barter system. Man, I'm confused.

No worries, it's an important issue.
Still can't belive they got away with it. Talking about government keep out of their business for years and then we find them first in line for a hand out. How about a bail out for main street? "NEVER! THAT'S SOCIALISM!!"


Could start with completely nationalizing the beast and then slowly move towards a barter system.

And thanks for posting.

Yeah, you can't have it both ways.
"Commie" regulations being voted down
by the Tea Party are to blame as much as lobbyists.
Getting banks oil companies and giant corporations to
play by common sense rules is not Socialism.

reply to post by PatrickGarrow17


Just remember who had the power when this occured. There were solutions such as breaking the banks up.