Greed will trump common sense every time.
Originally Posted by i'va biggen
People are rarely surprised when greed triumphs over common sense.
Far more serious problems occur when it triumphs over seemingly comprehensive efforts at financial reform!
...I do not think Dodd/Frank was worth a shit...
Originally Posted by WTF
As I noted in another thread a few months ago, fewer and fewer people disagree with that assessment. Now it appears that in at least one key respect, Dodd-Frank may even be a net
positive for the largest banks!
There's no question that it imposes some compliance costs on all institutions. But the legal costs to the smaller community banks,
as a percentage of their asset bases, is vastly greater than total costs to the megabanks. As a consequence, many smaller banks are no longer able to effectively compete, and in many cases have been virtually forced to unload assets or seek merger partners. So the largest of the large have been able to pick up assets on the cheap.
As has been widely reported, the five biggest TBTF banks are, in the aggregate, more than 50% bigger than they were five years ago. And they still know they will be backstopped by the Fed and the Treasury if anything goes badly wrong.
The really sad thing about this whole mess is that a well-functioning community banking system is needed to supply the lifeblood of small businesses, which have been such a critical driver of employment and healthy economic growth over the last few decades.