The latest data on problem banks has been updated by the FDIC, showing an increase from 775 in the first quarter to 829 in the second, according to this story. An unofficial list of the problem banks receives regular updating here.
Compare that with these remarks from an anonymous commercial banker from California offered at Mish's blog here in an on-going series of posts about insufficient loan loss provisions at banks:
In my estimation, if every bank had the collateral of all loans accurately appraised and each loan’s loan grading was finely tuned for an expected loss based on financial performance and collateral values, the number of essentially bankrupt banks in this county would increase by a factor of 4-5 from the current level.
In other words, there is a potential pool of 2000-3000 banks that would be on the FDIC radar's for getting closed.
The health of the industry is not accurately reported by any means.
What continues at the heart of this issue is asset valuations and the accounting rules which govern them. Banks want the most liberal rules they can get, while taxpayers who end up footing the bill for bank malfeasance do not. Elected government officials and unelected bureaucrats in the middle have been and continue to be on the bankers' side, with a few notable exceptions, at a horrible cost to the taxpayers, who rightly feel that they have no voice.
And that's a big part of what all the fuss is about as the midterm elections loom.
