Friday, August 27, 2010

This Week in Bank Failures

After the flurry of bank failures last weekend, there were none reported tonight. It seems likely that there will be none again next weekend, which is an extended holiday weekend. There was, however, more talk this week about the possibility of European banks buying a few more large banks in the United States.

Even before the large banks went into their decline in 2006, several were foreign-owned, and that number has been increasing. It might seem like good business for a bank to sell itself to a foreign bank, but it will not help the political fortunes of the large banks collectively if they come to be seen as mostly foreign-owned, and it will take only two or three more big transactions before consumers and the media will start to make that generalization.