10/21/09 Baltimore, Maryland – Here’s one of the more convincing series of charts we’ve seen in a while… bailing out the big banks — at least the way our government did it — was not a good idea:
In the year ending June 30, the biggest five banks in the U.S. grew deposits by 29%, the FDIC said this week. In dollar terms, that’s over $852 billion in deposits over the last year. But in spite of this, and the over $100 billion in TARP funds they’ve received, lending has increased only $564 billion.
So for all our troubles — the billions of taxpayer dollars, the tireless political battles, the violent market swings — what have we gotten in return? Too-big-to-fail banks are even bigger, and they are hoarding their larger market share. We can hardly blame them for it, but from the taxpayer standpoint, heh… looks like we got the shaft.
Ian Mathias
Ian Mathias is the managing editor of Agora Financial’s Income Franchise, where he writes and researches about retirement, dividend and fixed income investing. Much of his work is featured in The Daily Reckoning and Lifetime Income Report – Agora Financial’s flagship income investing advisory.
Previously, Ian managed The 5 Min. Forecast, a fun, fast-paced daily look into the future of global markets and macroeconomics. He’s also worked in public relations, where media outlets like Forbes, AP, Yahoo! and MSN Money have syndicated his writing. If he’s not at work, you’ll probably find Ian on a bicycle, racing up and down the “mountains” of Baltimore County. Ian has a BA from Loyola University in Maryland.
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Ian,
Far be it for me to defend the Big Banks, but wasn’t a big part of the problem irresponsible lending by these banks in the first place?