Too
big to fail
ABCD
US President Obama's seeking ways to better monitor the financial system have been opposed by
lobbyists who invested already more than US$200
millions in 2009 to influence lawmakers. Mergers and sales of banks have consolidated lending power in even fewer
hands, and those large firms still bet far more than the capital they have on hand.
The
US four biggest banks (Goldman Sachs, Morgan
Stanley, Citigroup and Bank of America) now control 60 percent of all bank deposits in the
country, a much higher value than two years ago.
They posted second-quarter profits totaling US$13 billion. That's more than double what they made in the second quarter of 2008 and nearly two-thirds as much as the
US$20.7 billion they earned in the second quarter of 2007.
Alone Goldman Sachs has put aside US$11 billions
during the first half of 2009 for bonus payments.
'Too
big to fail' is an even bigger problem now than it was before the
crisis.
