Bank Collapse Watch: ALL OF THEM! AGAIN!

Jim Rogers calls most big U.S. banks "bankrupt"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Jim Rogers, one of the world's most prominent international investors, on Thursday called most of the largest U.S. banks "totally bankrupt," and said government efforts to fix the sector are wrongheaded.

Speaking by teleconference at the Reuters Investment Outlook 2009 Summit, the co-founder with George Soros of the Quantum Fund, said the government's $700 billion rescue package for the sector doesn't address how banks manage their balance sheets, and instead rewards weaker lenders with new capital.

Dozens of banks have won infusions from the Troubled Asset Relief Program created in early October, just after the Sept 15 bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Some of the funds are being used for acquisitions.

"Without giving specific names, most of the significant American banks, the larger banks, are bankrupt, totally bankrupt," said Rogers, who is now a private investor.

Emphasis added by me.

Why does this surprise anybody?

More:

"What is outrageous economically and is outrageous morally is that normally in times like this, people who are competent and who saw it coming and who kept their powder dry go and take over the assets from the incompetent," he said. "What's happening this time is that the government is taking the assets from the competent people and giving them to the incompetent people and saying, now you can compete with the competent people. It is horrible economics."

Emphasis added by me.

Welcome to Too Big to Fail 101. And now with all the forced mergers, we have Even Too Bigger to Fail!

Another stat:

Goldman Sachs & Co analysts this week estimated that banks worldwide have suffered $850 billion of credit-related losses and writedowns since the global credit crisis began last year.

Emphasis added by me.

That's not even one-percent of the quadrillion lurking out there.

Some frank talk, finally:

"Governments are making mistakes," he said. "They're saying to all the banks, you don't have to tell us your situation. You can continue to use your balance sheet that is phony.... All these guys are bankrupt, they're still worrying about their bonuses, they're still trying to pay their dividends, and the whole system is weakened."

Emphasis added by me.

Yep, gotta keep those bonuses flowing. No matter how fucked-up a job they've done and continue to do and plan to do in the future.

American taxpayer, drop your pants and bend over!

Previously here:

Bank Collapse Watch: ALL OF THEM!