If too big then, what are they now?
Jon Ogden at Switch Your Bank offers a graphic picture of too big to fail. Lifted from an e-mail response to me…:
The units on the left axis are total assets in billions. So, yes, the total domestic assets of these 4 US megabanks grew from nearly $4.5T in 2007 to nearly $6T in 2012, or about 30%.
The data comes from the FDIC database, where I looked up each individual megabank’s assets each year since 1995.
And we also have too big to prosecute” added to the titles via HSBC.
Deal book reports two recent examples of trend:
GOLDMAN PROFIT ROSE TO $2.89 BILLION IN 4TH QUARTER Goldman Sachs on Wednesday reported a fourth-quarter profit of $2.89 billion, or $5.60 a share, well above the results a year earlier and handily beating analysts’ expectations of $3.78 a share. The results were buoyed by strong trading and investment banking results. The firm’s conference call is at 10:30 a.m.
JPMORGAN PROFIT JUMPS 53% JPMorgan Chase reported a record profit of $5.7 billion for the fourth quarter, up 53 percent from the period a year earlier. Revenues were also strong, rising 10 percent to $23.7 billion. The results were bolstered by a surge in mortgage lending.
Asset prices are inflated by Fed open market operations. It is highly likely that absent Fed balance sheet expansion financial asset prices will deflate and along with that big bank asset valuations.
So the Fed cannot stop ‘printing’. The current QE 3 was prompted by…nothing. Nothing evident. Oh sure, Bernanke pulled out the employment card but that was a convenient lie, if he knows it or not. Maybe he doesn’t know it. Maybe he does not admit even to himself that inflating asset prices is his purpose. It matters not really if he is lying or is dumb..The result is the same. This trillion of printing may, just may, boost stocks and other assets 10% give or take. Then, another trillion or two will be needed, ad infinitum.