Every quarter when I post this I get the question of "where are the names of the troubled banks" so let me preface this post by saying - the names are not disclosed. That is on purpose. The FDIC does not want you to run to banks on their list and withdraw money because that is how a troubled bank seals its fate.

Second, let us be clear - without the US taxpayer supporting their operations Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) would of been farther along than "troubled". The fact that these 2 NEVER made the list despite hundreds of billions of government support among the two tells you all you need to know about this list.

Last year (Aug 26, 2008: FDIC Troubled Bank List) I was making the same point with Washington Mutual (WM) - the nation's largest savings and loan. It was NOT on the list but we had to do an emergency intervention to sell it to JP Morgan (JPM) in a backdoor deal. But folks, it was never "troubled" according to this list.

Wachovia ? Which we had to deliver to Wells Fargo (WFC) to "save it"? Never on the list (Nov 25, 2008: FDIC Troubled Bank List Grows 46% - Is Your Bank Safe?)

So as these numbers grow (Feb 26, 2009: FDIC Troubled Bank List Up to 252) , and do not include the "most connected" banks i.e. our personal financial oligarchs please take it all with a grain of salt. And frankly it is not the number of banks but the assets involved that really are the story. Remember our top 4 banks now control a vast amount of American resources - 2 of which were effectively nationalized to keep them alive.

I also said in August 2008

At some point the FDIC will run out of money to guarantee the $100K per account so they will have to raise the fees on the remaining banks to raise more money to fund their bailout fund.

This has happened....