And still, bankers don’t get it.
The banking industry’s first response to the Obama administration’s so-called plan for bank regulation misses the point. It can decry all it likes Obama's flip-flop towards restricting the scope and size of banks as electioneering and not a serious legislative proposal. It can scoff that the plan will falter before Congressional opposition, as the technical difficulty of defining proprietary trading becomes clear.
The industry doesn’t seem to realize how few friends it has, or that any politician hoping for re-election could not take the banks’ side.
It is too early to assess what final form the Volcker rules will take or their impact on banks’ earnings and capital generation. Many senior bankers privately express horror and outrage but their own analysts take a more sober view, pointing out that earnings from prop trading...
