Part of the too big to fail/succeed legacy was the four banks that were inviolate: Citi, Bank of America, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo. The Fed can’t let any of these fail, so Bank of America (what a nice name) gets extra aid, even after the almost failures of Citi and Wachovia.
From an idealistic strandpoint, I don’t get the aid. If aid were not available, Bank of America would have been less aggressive, and we would be moaning about the smaller Merrill and Countrywide troubles today.
But, that’s not the case. The aid provided has perverse incentives to banks. The more you moan, and the bigger you are, the more you get.
This will not end well. My experience tells me that those who are dependent tend to be so, until something big jolts them back to independence. After all, dependence is comfortable.
Amen, Brother!!!
They are just setting themselves (us really) up for a bigger and harder fall. These bailouts are not going to fix anything. When are we going to stand up and say “NO” ?… After next one? Or maybe the one after that?