Can the banks, big and small, be trusted? Paul Krugman writes in his final NT Times article, “It’s not just governments that have lost the public’s trust. It’s astonishing to look back and see how much more favorably banks were viewed before the financial crisis.”
There were over 14,496 FDIC-insured U.S. banks in 1984. As of June 30 2024, the number had decreased to 4,539. Three regulators fighting over fewer than a third of the banks that were operating 40 years ago. Thousands of regulators overseeing bankers pretending bad loans are good. The status quo.
Only the mentally impaired ever trusted the banks to do the right thing and even worse only idiots ever trusted the government to regulate banks correctly. The hens are coming home to roost and there will be some heavy slashing of the regulators for the 1/3rd of banks that still remain in independent operation.