Officially, the Great Recession ended in June 2009.  The Great Repression, continues . . . Ironically, through this so called economic recovery, bank failures have abounded, and food stamp dependency has increased exponentially, but:  the Stock Market has rebounded!

Even including the figures of bank failures, up through and including the entire month of June of 2009, there were 10 bank closures in the five years preceding the official announcement of the Great Recession.  In 2008, there were 26 failed banks.  Now failed banks resulted in mergers, take-overs etc.  There is no report of anyone just losing their FDIC accounts.  As a matter of fact, the statistics in the article were obtained at the FDIC website and the same information was posted in Wikipedia.  The first half of 2009, saw 45 bank failures, before the transition from recession to recovery was declared.  Since the time of "recovery," the rest of 2009 saw 95 more bank failures.  There were 157 reported in 2010, and 92 in 2011.

So, to put this in proper perspective, this nation saw 71 bank failures through the Great Repression, with 10 previous failures since the invasion of Iraq.  To date, there have been 418 bank failures, since the "recovery" began.  There were 51 reported bank failures in 2012 and so far through October 2013, there have been only 23 bank failures.  Here's where the politics gets fun!  It doesn't fix any of the problem, it just gives the loyal party members something quibble over.

Those leaning to the letter R will "clearly see and explain to the rest of us" that there have been more bank failings in just one year of Obama's administration than all the recorded years under Bush.  There were a total of 51 bank failures, reported through the entire Bush administration.  This is obviously an easy observation to make.  Just count the banks at the FDIC webpage.  I'd even guess the first few could somehow be blamed on the Clinton administration, and of course then, 9/11.

Now, those leaning to the letter D will explain how all of these closings stemmed from the recession that occurred in the Bush administration.  That will be the explanation given and fervently believed, well then there's the whole lousy Republican led Congress that refuse to work with the President.  And let us not forget the Fat Cats on Wall Street who don't care about anyone but themselves and their puppet politicians!   Oh, and the fact that there have been fewer bank failures the last two years clearly shows what a great job he's doing, in spite of the other party.

The problem I see is three fold.  First, the citizens are so divided in their blame, we fail to see that there have been over 500 bank failures in this country from 2008 to the present.  That's a lot of failure and consolidation.  In the five years around the Great Repression, 2007-2011, the five largest banks increased their assets by 13%.   The citizenry choosing to remain divided amongst ourselves solves absolutely nothing.  One party did not cause this and one party is not fixing or impeding this calamity.

The fact of the matter is, while we're discussing who is at fault, there are some startling statistics that have developed through this so called recovery.  From my very superficial research as to the dollar value, banks are sized according to deposits held with $300M being the dividing line.  In 1988 there were 12,500 banks smaller than $300M and 900 that held more than $300M, making a total of 13,400 banks in the US.  In 2012, the statistics were markedly different.  There are now only a total of  6000 banks in the US, with twice as many, 1800, now holding over $300M, and only 4,200 hundred holding less than $300M.

In the last twenty-five years, Savings and Loans have virtually disappeared and the number of banks have been reduced to fewer than half.  In more recent news, the number of banks shuttered through this so called recovery only serves to prove, we've redefined recovery!  The fact that so few banks have shuttered this year, only tells me, there are fewer in existence.  This is not a political issue at all, it's a consolidation of wealth and power toward one global bank.   This is a love of money issue, which we know is the root of all evil . . .

Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches . . .  New Testament