I share your concern about the aptitude of bank managers & have stated (more than once) that the fate of free enterprise, along with who will ultimately survive, is in the hands of the jokers at the banks.
More important, the graphs on the links were current & updated. Many pieces of the puzzle started coming together for me when I studied them.
My concluding impression was that the worst is yet to come. The stress tests are a hocus-pocus when viewed as "prudent, comforting tests" because the results are more than a "gee-whiz"--> a mandate resulted to get more capital. Why would the administration pet & whisper sweet nothings to the public while financial stock prices rise & then throw down the gavel to increase capital when the stock prices are at their highest? And, to boot, dictate the increase in capital based on a "what if"?
Fools rushed in & capitalized just before the train is about to hit them. It doesn't appear to be a slow moving train based on the graphs.
So... stock markets rise... bank shares rise... the world will get better and therefore money in safe places should be taken out & invested in banks who... uhmmmmmm... will waste that money within the next 24 months. But, in so doing, will not lean so heavily on the governement. Alas, the better-than-poor investor bought the bait. JMHO.
The bandaids for backing off foreclosures have expired. The full force of our economic situation is coming down with a heavy hand (as evidences by foreclosures in April... most of which were those which were stalled by bandaids).
If the wave of Alt-A plays out without some sort of cushion, then something wicked this way comes.
