On July 3rd, more than half-way through the year, I wrote a post that the number oif bank failures had reached 52. Now here we are, less than two months later and that number has exploded to 81. We have had nearly 30 bank failures in less than two months. That is a pace of nearly one every other day.
The most notable of the bank failures this weekend was Guaranty Bank, it was the third largest this year.
The systemic cause of these failures is falling asset prices, specifically residential and commercial real estate. The problem is that despite aggressive monetary efforts by the government, asset values are still falling.
Monetary policy is not working because it is not targeted, it is not timely, and it is anything but temporary. Monetary policy is broad, slow, and long-lasting. And yet despite the impotence of monetary policy, Washington continues to step on the gas.
On the other hand, fiscal policy is cost-effective, timely, targeted, and temporary, and yet despite this, Washington continues to ignore it and is allowing asset values to continue to deteriorate.
Comments(5)