I’m sure no one on this site missed these stories this weekend:
Major Bank Fails in South
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125026270774732295.html
Toxic Loans Topping 5% May Push 150 Banks to Point of No Return
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aTTT9jivRIWE
I think we can probably agree, whether we think there is more trouble coming down the pike or not, the TARP banks are safe for the time being. What about the rest? I know from experience how many people were making investments they didn’t understand in order to make a few extra basis points. Those bps are costing companies their lives. As for banks, they were doing the same things – just competing for loans that didn’t make sense, at rates that made less sense.
What’s next? The FDIC is understaffed and underfunded.
Don’t get me wrong Jeffry, I didn’t mean to imply that Citi was getting too hard a time – they’re still a zombie bank IMHO, but to answer your question, I think both the mass media and the government (spurred by the media hopefully) need to come to grips with the fact that although disaster was averted by the actions of the fall of 2008, there’s so much more trouble lurking that we can’t take our eyes off the ball.