It’s earnings week for the big banks — that week during every quarter when the financial hearts of American capitalism tell everyone how they did last quarter. Starting tomorrow, there will be reports from JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.

These banks touch so many parts of this economy so, their quarterly reports can be a kind of barometer of the economy’s overall health. Things are looking pretty good for the big banks, said Gerald Cohen of UNC’s Kenan-Flagler business school. 

“Overall, you’re seeing growing loan demand, a growing deposit base,” Cohen said.

 As for all the tariff-induced chaos in recent months? Turns out, that’s good for big banks too, said Mayra Rodriguez Valladares, managing principal of MRV Associates.

“Because they have huge trading desks, so they can actually profit from all the volatile movements in the stock market, in the bond market,” Valladares said.

When banks issue their forward guidance in the next few days, they’ll be looking ahead into a different business environment, said Kenneth Leon, Research Director at CFRA.

“A much more friendly, less regulatory framework,” said Leon.

For instance, the Trump administration wants to loosen the so-called supplementary leverage ratio. That’s a rule put in after the 2008 financial crisis, which limits how much big banks can use debt to fund their investments.

Loosening it would give the banks “more capital to use in the business, particularly lending,” said Leon.

That could increase bank earnings in the near term.

“Oh, there are huge rewards for them,” said Anat Admati, a professor of finance at Stanford. “The risk is to the rest of us.”

Admati said if banks put too much money into risky assets, like crypto, it could backfire. When the big banks get into trouble, Admati said, so does everyone else.