“After subjecting the nation’s biggest banks to the most public scrutiny in decades, federal regulators ordered 10 of them on Thursday to raise a total of $75 billion in extra capital and gave the rest a clean bill of health…. ‘It’s window-dressing,’ said Bert Ely, a longtime bank analyst based in Alexandria, Va. Mr. Ely was particularly skeptical about letting companies bolster their balance sheets by converting preferred shares to common.” (New York Times, Friday)
False sense of security.
FEE Timely Classic
“Banking Without Regulation” by Lawrence H. White
