Inaugurating a new series of Daily Notes. Not full blog posts, but gleanings from Twitter postings etc. Semi-daily. Minimal text. Just jarring, fascinating or intriguing pointers. This seemed like a good one to start with.
Yes. Those are US bank profits across the crisis.
Bank profits in the US have surged and surged again. Points to the fact that the Dodd-Frank regime is really a second order issue. The main mode of macroprudential policy since 2009 under the Stress Test regime has been rebuilding “financial stability” through ample profit-making. The Fed/FDIC/Treasury actually target profitability and its distribution in dividends. And yes, ladies and gentlemen, the banks banks played along.
Fascinating detailed statistics from the FDIC here. https://www.fdic.gov/bank/analytical/qbp/
Stuff for a much longer post at some point. But that is not the point of the Daily Notes.