Too Big(ger) to Fail?

“When you see the dollars the banks got, it’s hard to make the case these were successful institutions,” says Sherrod Brown, a Democratic Senator from Ohio who in 2010 introduced an unsuccessful bill to limit bank size.

$13 billion

Profit made by banks by taking advantage of below-market rates on loans from the Federal Reserve between 2007 and 2010

$7.7 trillion

The value of guarantees and lending limits that was given to banks by the Federal Reserve

$107 billion

The amount Morgan Stanley borrowed from the Federal Reserve in September of 2008

10

Percent of the country’s delinquent mortgages that loan would pay off

$6.8 trillion

Total assets held by the six biggest U.S. banks on Sept. 30, 2006

$9.5 trillion

Total assets held by the six biggest U.S. banks on Sept. 30, 2011

20

Percent increase in average compensation paid to employees of the six biggest U.S. banks from 2005 to 2010

3.6 million

The number of homes that have been foreclosed on since August of 2007

Sources: Blomberg.com