Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 18 submissions in the queue.
posted by n1 on Monday May 18 2015, @09:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the approved-by-jp-morgan-and-co dept.

The Register has a eminently readable explanation of why big banks are considered too big to fail, and get government bailouts after mismanaging their financial situations.

We seem to rage every time this happens, Let them go Bankrupt! seems the cry from the man in the street.

But that is a juvenile approach which will hurt far more people than those few officers miss-managing the bank or its funds. Banks don't have funds. Its all your funds. And if the bank fails, you mostly get nothing.

The article explains just what banks are (for those of you who slept through Econ 101), and what they are not. Its worth a read! And don't skip the comments section on the article. Many posters had no problem with bailing out the banks, but railed against bank management officers who rarely or never face any serious charges.

When you look at it this way, the federal "Stress Tests", and Forced Closures (over 500 since 1998) imposed on US banks, large and small, was the right course of action when combine with holding our collecting noses and bailing out the big ones.

Its too bad the stress tests, measuring a bank's ability to withstand withdrawals, loan defaults, and deposit slow-downs from unemployed depositors, weren't imposed far earlier. Local and national Banks have learned at least part of the lesson, and are closing money losing branches at a record rate, in favor of ATMs and digital services.

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2015, @08:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 18 2015, @08:54PM (#184805)

    That each person, doing what they do out of pure self interest will, if all trade is kept voluntary, create a society where all benefit through the magic invisible hand of the marketplace.

    And reality proves that that's nothing but a crock of shit. Nobody benefits in capitalism except those with all the capital, who do nothing but use it to hoard even more capital for themselves. Thats how it works in reality. Ignoring the evidence in favor of dogma that isn't supported by facts puts it straight into the territory of religion.

    Nothing else comes close to creating wealth for a society than capitalism.

    [Citation Needed]