Big banks all pass the Federal Reserve's stress tests, but the tests were less vigorous this year

[moniss]

1. The folly of the "stress test" is the false sense of security

it gives. I think that is by design. The current exposure in CDO's and other exotic financial instruments is in the many,many trillions of dollars. The laughable amount of $550 billion wouldn't scratch the surface of meeting obligations and therefore the scenario would be one of two things. Either total collapse or another bailout. Given the way the banks were literally given money at 0% interest and literally no accountability for the executives who caused the collapse during the W Presidency, and given that as massive of a collapse as it was, there is literally no conceivable way that amounts thousands of times greater in bad debt wouldn't collapse the worldwide economy in a far more dramatic manner than the last time.