Raw Story
Stephen C. Webster
In its annual report for 2011, issued on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas released a startling report revealing that 52 percent of all the assets held by the entire banking industry have now become aggregated into the hands of just five companies, and the top 10 institutions have swollen so large that they possess wealth that equates to roughly half of America’s annual gross domestic product (GDP).
It is for those reasons that Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher, who’s otherwise known as a conservative budget hawk, has embraced the radical cause of breaking up the nation’s largest banks and forever ending “too big to fail.” In a letter introducing the 2011 report, he cautions that Congress may not have gone far enough with prior attempts at financial reforms, and that those bills may even be working against the struggling economic recovery underway.
Alarming as that sounds, it’s the Dallas Fed’s chart of U.S. banking assets that’s most startling.
In his letter, Fisher adds that if the wealthiest sample group is expanded to the top 10 banks, their total assets are worth approximately half of America’s annual GDP, which eclipsed $14.5 trillion in 2010.
He goes on to suggest that Congress did not go far enough with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act (PDF) because it did not effectively deal with the problem of institutions growing to such heights that their fall threatens the whole economy.
Stephen C. Webster
It is for those reasons that Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher, who’s otherwise known as a conservative budget hawk, has embraced the radical cause of breaking up the nation’s largest banks and forever ending “too big to fail.” In a letter introducing the 2011 report, he cautions that Congress may not have gone far enough with prior attempts at financial reforms, and that those bills may even be working against the struggling economic recovery underway.
Alarming as that sounds, it’s the Dallas Fed’s chart of U.S. banking assets that’s most startling.
In his letter, Fisher adds that if the wealthiest sample group is expanded to the top 10 banks, their total assets are worth approximately half of America’s annual GDP, which eclipsed $14.5 trillion in 2010.
He goes on to suggest that Congress did not go far enough with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act (PDF) because it did not effectively deal with the problem of institutions growing to such heights that their fall threatens the whole economy.
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