Saturday, February 09, 2013

George Will: Time to break up the big banks

George Will calls for breaking up the big banks because:
In 2011, the four biggest U.S. banks (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo) had 40 percent of all federally insured deposits. Today, the 5,500 community banks have 12 percent of the banking industry’s assets. The 12 banks with $250 billion to $2.3 trillion in assets total 69 percent. The 20 largest banks’ assets total 84.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.
A much better answer is : to end The Fed. Without a central bank , there would be no bailouts. What George Will forgets is bailouts still can happen with smaller banks as long as The Fed still exists.