Are we going to end up with 3 national megabanks - BOfA, Chase (the dragon) and $hitibank?

[marmar]

Peeee-ew! :puke:

Credit union time!

[OmahaBlueDog]

1. Agree

There will be some smaller banks (some quite sucessful), but you're right -- maybe 4 banks of you count Wells Fargo in that mix.

Edit: I wrote something idiotic, which I edited.

[Auggie]

2. Yes (my post from this morning)

Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase & Co will control more than 30% of the industry's deposits.

Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/0...

"Together, those three (would be) so large that they would dominate the industry, with unrivaled power to set prices for their loans and services. Given their size and reach, the institutions would probably come under greater scrutiny from federal regulators. Some small and midsize banks, already under pressure, might have little choice but to seek out suitors." -- Ed Dash, N.Y Times.

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Original post with no comments :(

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4118485&mesg_id=4118485



That's some impressive lobbying power.

[Geek_Girl]

3. Probably

but eventually new banking institutions will come into the mix.

[alanincanada]

Regulation is more important - Canada has 5 main banks - no crisis here

I think regulation is important not to protect us from greedy wallstreet / Bay Street (CDN equivalent) but from our collectively greedy selves.

When you have people with 50k/yr jobs trying to get mortgages on 400,000 houses you end up with issues. Every bank in Canada is geared to lending you about 3x your annual income as proven by a couple of tax returns. Even as housing prices went up in our markets, they stuck to this principal more or less (as you get higher in pay, your discretionary income goes up so its closer to 4:1 for mortage:annual income.)

Just as complicit in this meltdown is a completely unrestrained culture of consumption that needs credit to survive. Its like the drug trade. It only exists because there is a huge market for it.

I would say to anyone looking to put their money somewhere safe, look at a bank that has a history of very conservative lending practices. If they have historically made it difficult to give loans to people, then put your money there as they are probably sitting on fairly secure loans and good reserves.

[madrchsod]

4. wamu was destroyed on purpose

the fidc gave the bank to chase.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Mutual

the demise section tells it all