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<H2 class=date-header><SPAN>Friday, April 20, 2012</SPAN></H2>
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<DIV class="post hentry" itemtype="http://schema.org/BlogPosting"
itemscope="itemscope"><A name=4327308307335642176></A>
<H3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">Five US banks hold 56% of the
US economy </H3>
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<DIV id=post-body-4327308307335642176 class="post-body entry-content"
itemprop="articleBody">
<DIV style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; CLEAR: both" class=separator><A
style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em"
href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iiWMTQmePd8/T5HGfDpJw8I/AAAAAAAACoY/vfmaH6aOS4s/s1600/pol_banks17_inline4051.jpg"
imageanchor="1"><IMG border=0
src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iiWMTQmePd8/T5HGfDpJw8I/AAAAAAAACoY/vfmaH6aOS4s/s400/pol_banks17_inline4051.jpg"
width=323 height=400></A></DIV>Public money sure helped the <I>"Big Five"
</I>and I'm not talking about the sports retailer. According to the
Federal Reserve, JP Morgan Chase, B of A, Citigroup and Well s Fargo
collectively held $8.5 trillion in assets as 2011 entered the history
books. That's equal to 56% of the US economy up from 43% before the
crisis hit. As Rahm Emmanuel said, a good crisis is a terrible thing to
waste and the 1% have come out of this one very well off indeed.<BR><BR>These
five banks are about double the size they were 10 years ago <A
href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-19/big-banks-now-even-too-bigger-to-fail">Bloomberg
Business Week </A>tells us and some sections of the capitalist class are
concerned about five financial institutions holding such a concentration of
society's assets. These banks backed up by what BW calls an <I>"an invisible
government umbrella"</I> pose a "<I>clear and present danger to the US
economy"</I> a report from the Dallas Federal Reserve stated last
month.<BR><BR><BR>The Dodd-Frank legislation was supposed to curb the power of
the largest financial institutions, prevent fiurther consolidation and impose
capital requirements on banks as well as increase the government's powers to
take over any large financial institution facing failure. The banks are boasting
that the increase in assets and improved balance sheets are proof that they are
stronger now and could weather the next storm so public finds won't have
to rescue capitalism from the edge of the abyss as we did this time. In
accordance with Dodd-Frank, the banks are supposed to come up with their plans
for preventing a meltdown like 2007 by July of this year.<BR><BR>But BW reports
that the ratings agencies are not convinced and that the state will step in
again with poublic fiunds to rescue any one of these behemoths that lookls like
its going under. The state is, as Marx pointed out, the executive
committee for the capitalist class as a whole and will not allow the system to
collapse. No ruling elite commits class suicide.<BR><BR>Some, including right
wing workers and small business types who suffer under the weight of the giant
corporations argue that the only solution is to break up the big banks but
capitalism inherently drives to monopoly. Bigger is better, more powerful,
more aggressive. The big fish always eats the little fish in their world no
matter how much legislation is passed. <BR><BR>If the crisis is acute
enough the state will nationalize the banks. They tend to use the term
<I>"conservatorship"</I> here in the US as it sounds less socialistic. It
is in the cards that there will be further crisis in this sector and the economy
as a whole. The US banking and financial system is not immune from the
EU's sovereign debt crisis which continues to worsen. But for some, the
crisis is a great opportunity just like 911 was for the defense
industry.<BR><BR>
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<DIV class=post-footer>
<DIV class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-1"><SPAN
class="post-author vcard">Posted by <SPAN class=fn><A title="author profile"
href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/00997976754939725087" rel=author
itemprop="author">Richard Mellor </A></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN class=post-timestamp>at
<A class=timestamp-link title="permanent link"
href="http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2012/04/five-us-banks-hold-56-of-us-economy.html"
rel=bookmark itemprop="url"><ABBR class=published
title=2012-04-20T13:29:00-07:00 itemprop="datePublished">1:29 PM</ABBR></A>
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