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America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?
181–190 of 451 posts
Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
SQUIRE: When America was in its earlier days, we had a - kind of a populist suspicion about big banks. SMITH: So states looked for ways to support and protect local banks. SQUIRE: A lot of states passed what were called branch banking laws, which made it illegal to operate a bank out of more than one building. It's hard to imagine it now. And so every little town in America had its own local bank. https://www.npr.org…
I feel like they could bring back that law and it would not make a difference because there is not much reason to go inside a bank.
I live on an island with 25k people. And we've got 13 bank branches, and had one credit union branch (they close this branch, but their outdoor ATM remains). One branch is closing soon, because two banks merged and they don't need to keep both their branches.
Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?
#183I wonder if there are any anti-trust measures controlling unlimited mergers.
Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the US, a government-controlled bank would have stronger privacy because privacy is enshrined in law. Specifically my government cannot snoop on certain things. If the government kept all of my banking records, they wouldn't be able to legally access them. Currently, they can just use taxpayer money to purchase these records from the corporations who gather them.
Apply your logic about laws to private banks. Make it so private banks have to adhere to some new law. Same outcome.
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Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Who should set the rate on interest for loans? Just one entity without any other consumer options? What happens if the government makes a ton of bad loans that never get paid?
Why can't that be the central bank? We don't have private courts?
I ask again: What happens if the government makes a ton of bad loans that never get paid?
Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the US, a government-controlled bank would have stronger privacy because privacy is enshrined in law. Specifically my government cannot snoop on certain things. If the government kept all of my banking records, they wouldn't be able to legally access them. Currently, they can just use taxpayer money to purchase these records from the corporations who gather them.
Apply your logic about laws to private banks. Make it so private banks have to adhere to some new law. Same outcome.
> Apply your logic about laws to private banks.
I'm pretty sure that's actually a more ambitious endeavor than insisting on a government-run solution. I otherwise still see the same issue in OP's comment: there is no reason for the private bank to exist.
Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?
#187I've said it before, I'll say it again - "too big to fail" should be recast as "too big to exist" I'm not sure what the best solution is here, but making the big banks even bigger is not it. This is just going to make the banking system more concentrated and no concentrated market is good for anyone. Least of all because the past decade+ has set the precedent that the banks will be bailed out... If they're big enough
It's a fuzzy boundary. I agree in theory but where is the line where something is too big? We encourage companies to grow as large as possible and hope that competition will provide the counter friction. The only fail-safe is the government trust busting on a case by case basis which might not be optimal. Are there any regulations that could provide economic incentives to small businesses and make it increasingly dif…
The regulations already exist - don't buy the competition and don't use your market power to undercut the competition. Simple and worked excellently in the post-WW2 boom years.
But regulators stopped enforcing those regulations in the 1980s because of "efficiency" and each administration after Reagan doubled down. Luckily some politicians are starting to see the error of their ways and listening to thinkers like Matt Stoller:
Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?
#188Why exactly should banks be private companies at all? Theyre just skimming middle man between the government and end consumer. Sure, the government would know your bank balance and spendings, but that could be worked around If youre in trouble with the irs or the law, the government will have all the insight they request. Sounds crazy? We the people had to bail them out and never get anything of their profits. Too bi…
State owned banks are usually a bad idea for one reason, corruption. Historically, having the government control money supply is usually a recipe for prolific corruption. A good modern example is Turkey.
Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?
#189Why exactly should banks be private companies at all? Theyre just skimming middle man between the government and end consumer. Sure, the government would know your bank balance and spendings, but that could be worked around If youre in trouble with the irs or the law, the government will have all the insight they request. Sounds crazy? We the people had to bail them out and never get anything of their profits. Too bi…
>And if they fail, the fdic needs to cover, also tax payer funded.
The FDIC is funded by the banks. It's backed by the US government in case it fails.
Re: America will soon see a wave of bank mergers?
#190Why exactly should banks be private companies at all? Theyre just skimming middle man between the government and end consumer. Sure, the government would know your bank balance and spendings, but that could be worked around If youre in trouble with the irs or the law, the government will have all the insight they request. Sounds crazy? We the people had to bail them out and never get anything of their profits. Too bi…
State owned banks are usually a bad idea for one reason, corruption. Historically, having the government control money supply is usually a recipe for prolific corruption. A good modern example is Turkey.
The same kind of behavior happens in the private sector. Since it’s not government, we don’t call it corruption.