More on banks....

My prior post today referenced banks and their seeming arrogance in assuming that they're the only ones who can provide financing to small businesses and individuals. Maybe their arrogance stems simply from their ever-increasing size, which Barry Ritholtz was so kind to point out in this infographic originally posted by Mother Jones.

It shows an amazing accumulation of financial power in just the last 20 years, a consolidation that was completely unslowed (and in fact accelerated) by the financial crisis of 2007-08 and neverending cries of "Too Big To Fail".

Take that dynamic for what it's worth, but yes, we really do only have four American banks left of any real import. As Mother Jones points out, in 1990, the nation's 10 largest financial institutions held only 20% of our nation's total financial assets. They now hold 54%. The total number of banks has dropped precipitously in that period, from roughly 12,500 to fewer than 8,000. Too big to fail, indeed.

[Mother Jones]
(h/t Barry Ritholtz)

An interesting alternative view of Congress

I go out of my way to avoid overtly political (i.e., "Democrat" vs. "Republican") discussions on this site, but if you read closely enough you should be able to determine that I have no party affiliation. In fact, this post by Barry Ritholtz does a fairly decent job of summarizing my feelings.

In essence, I believe that political party affiliations have become more a red herring than anything else, and that the truly important ties--in terms of actual daily government action--are the corporate interests that finance politicians' campaigns. To the degree that those ties may break along party lines, I see importance in party affiliation, but I think "party" is less important than most voters believe, and that they should therefore focus their attention elsewhere.

To that end, I was particularly drawn to this item from Mother Jones. It at least gives some decent visuals, and an alternative way of viewing things. Whether or not you buy into it is up to you, but it's certainly interesting.

The full article goes into further detail, breaking down donations to individual politicians, if you're interested. Personally, I think the visual representation is the most striking part of the article, which is why I included it here.

[Mother Jones]