J.P. Morgan Chase, one of Wall Street's most storied institutions, now holds more than $1 of every $10 on deposit in America and so does Bank of America, even though it’s tarnished by its acquisition of Merrill Lynch and partly government-owned as a result of the crisis, and so does Wells Fargo, the biggest West Coast bank. These three banks, plus government-rescued and owned Citigroup, now issue one of every two mortgages and about two of every three credit cards, federal data show.

This is very troublesome to me because, let’s face it, they were the primary cause of this toxic mess we are in and it looks like they are only getting bigger; too big to fail … again, even though they are actually, in fact, illegal because banks are not allowed to hold more than 10% of the nation's deposits. JP Morgan holds 10%, Wells Fargo has 11% and Bank of America holds 12.9% of all deposits in the United States.
We’re going to end up with fewer choices for services and these big banks will assume they have the government's backing if things go wrong and that assumed guarantee means that large companies could return to the risky behavior that led us into this crisis in the first place but why should they not if they figure that federal officials will clean up any mess that they make and bail them out —again? And, does this therein then lie the future? Because if it does, then we are just going around in circles but it is definitely the wrong circle for the consumer, even though the banks feel, as they are now bullet-proof, it is the right circle for them.

Oh, one other thing: the federal deposit insurance fund, which has been shrinking faster than the big banks have been getting bailed out, reported late last week that the fund that insures some $4.5 trillion in U.S. bank deposits fell to $10.4 billion at the end of June, as the list of failing banks continues to grow. The fund was $45.2 billion a year ago, when regulators told us all was well and there was no need to take precautions to shore up the fund.

If this fund goes broke there will be a run on banks for an already devalued dollar and then, when everyone has all they’re paper money in their socks and under their beds there will be a run on the supermarkets, as everyone becomes afraid of not having enough food and then the dollar, already almost worthless, will … oh well … just sayin’ …