Although this is counterintuitive it is no surprise. The S&L crisis in the 90's produced significant profits. I for one am not convinced the end is in site. Good loans go bad because people can't make their payments. The government stimulus is nursing the financial sector along while we struggle. Very bad idea. We need to fix employment otherwise a commercial real estate implosion is coming that will lower our standard of living for generations to come. Unemployment will near 15% before 2012. We're headed down the same path as Japan did in the 90s when we should be taking not on what China is doing today. Their deficit is 14% of their GDP and their unemployment rate rose less than 1% through this crisis and appears to have topped out in Jan at 4.3%.
Thanks for the interesting insight.