then in November 2008 I said

Again, please don't worry - if we cannot raise fees on banks to pay for their own failures, we always have your grandchildren's fund aka the Great Printing Press. Helicopter Ben stands at the ready. Look for the FDIC to borrow from the US Treasury for insurance funds by this time next year.

And now that has come true...we have the FDIC borrowing $500B from the Treasury. Because... as always, money grows on trees and our pockets are endless. Folks, I know you are numb to these numbers but that is HALF A TRILLION.

• President Barack Obama on Wednesday afternoon signed into law two major housing bills, one of which would allow the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to temporarily borrow as much as $500 billion from the Treasury Department to protect the deposits of bank customers.

All you need to know is your banking system is "sound" and money dropped from the heavens has solved all our ills. That's the benefit! Costs? Don't you worry about that - just go out there and shop... we'll discuss costs with your grandchildren at the appropriate time. Let me distract you with the stock market going up - isn't that proof enough that "the right thing" was done? (i.e. enriching a small select group of financial elites at the cost of generations of debt?) The answer is clearly yes because when the market is up, we know everything is right in the world.

Here are the latest "incorrect" statistics

• U.S. “problem” banks climbed 21 percent to the highest total in 15 years in the first quarter... The FDIC classified 305 banks with $220 billion in assets as “problem” lenders as of March 31, rising from 252 with $159 billion in assets in the fourth quarter, the agency said today without naming any institutions.
• The FDIC said its insurance fund slumped 25 percent in the period. The insurance fund fell to $13 billion, from $17.3 billion in the previous quarter. The FDIC is imposing an emergency fee to raise $5.6 billion to rebuild the fund. (not a problem - that is where new money borrowed from the Treasury will come in handy - as with any problem in America whether at the state or federal level; just borrow and kick the can down the road.)

Really it is hard to imagine any banks are in trouble with everything the US taxpayer has given up for them.... but then again almost all our "solutions" are based on helping the most politically connected (read: largest) banks in the country. The other 7900? Bah. Too small to care about.