A look at too big to fail, banking crisis
TEXT OF STORY
BILL RADKE: OK, let’s say good morning to analyst Juli Niemann at Smith, Moore & Co. live from St. Louis. Hi there.
JULI NIEMANN: Good morning, Bill.
RADKE: There’s a series of forums explaining the government’s new rules for the financial system. You were at the one in your home town of St. Louis, and Juli I understand your local Fed president is saying the big banks are still acting like they’re too big to fail?
NIEMANN: They are. Bottom line, it’s a good start he says, but there’s a lot more needed. Freddie and Fannie, for one thing. One panelist said we don’t have adequate regulations for too big to fail. We’ve got to do some trust busting here. Railroads, oil companies, AT&T — We’ve got to go with too big to fail here. But board says nobody will believe too big to fail process will work until a big one actually does fail.
RADKE: Right, they’ll act as if in the meantime. Juli, what I want to know is, obviously the economy isn’t super right now, but isn’t the banking crisis not behind us now?
NIEMANN: Well the pressure is building once again though. China fired the People’s Bank of China president — $430 billion loss in treasuries, that could cause a bank crisis over there. Europe — the bank problems aren’t over yet. Sovereign debt problems are rising up again and here in the United States, 15 percent of our banks are still in trouble. And that’s due to real estate, and we saw this morning it is still in the ditch. So this is not over.
RADKE: OK. Well, Julie Niemann at Smith, Moore & Co. Very interesting. Thanks a lot.
NIEMANN: You bet.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
