It’s Hard to Summon Sympathy for Big Banks

Floyd Norris, writing for the New York Times:

Two of the six largest United States banks in 2007 — Wachovia and Washington Mutual — were taken over by others during the crisis. Now the remaining four — Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup — are so dominant that there is no one left to buy any of them. If the fifth-largest bank by deposits, U.S. Bancorp, were to acquire the three banks just below it on the list — Bank of New York Mellon, PNC and Capital One — it would still be No. 5.

Holy cow.