FDIC Insurance Fund Still $20 Billion in the Hole

You can't mention institutions like Social Security, which is bankrupt now, not 25 or 50 years from now, but right now, today; or the FDIC, the tentacle of the Federal Reserve supposedly responsible for protecting you from your bank's insolvency (ALL banks are insolvent), which is itself insolvent, as an argument against further government expansion into other areas of our life, like healthcare. Or as an argument against the State itself. Everything government touches turns to shit, and there is literally no function, outside of mass theft (taxation) and mass murder (war) that the State can perform more efficiently than the private free market. But for some reason people still think we need government, and many people would say some not-so-nice things about me for saying otherwise.

USAWatchdog -

While the stock market was beginning its 376 point plunge yesterday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was quietly putting the best face it could on a banking system in serious trouble. In a press release to update the status of the insurance fund, the big positive headline was, “FDIC-Insured Institutions Earned $18 Billion in the First Quarter of 2010–Net Income Highest in Two Years.” FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair said, “There are encouraging signs in the first-quarter numbers . . . Industry earnings are up. More banks reported higher earnings, and fewer lost money.” (Click here for the complete FDIC press release.)

I can appreciate Chairman Bair’s positive attitude, but “encouraging signs” do not mean we have turned the corner and brighter days are ahead. The Deposit Insurance Fund, or DIF, has a negative balance of -$20.7 billion. That is just a $200 million improvement from the all time record deficit of -$20.9 billion at the end of 2009. I don’t see how these numbers are “encouraging.”

I talked with FDIC spokesman David Barr yesterday about the shortfall in the DIF. He said, “The FDIC is not broke.” It has an additional “$63 billion in cash.” He told me there is about $46 billion in three years of prepaid deposit insurance premiums and an additional $17 billion in cash for a grand total of $63 billion in “liquid resources” to close insolvent banks. Let me get this straight–nearly 75% of the FDIC’s bailout money is from fees collected up front. What happens when the FDIC burns through that? Will they collect another 3 years of fees?

Barr told me the FDIC is expecting to spend “$40 billion” closing troubled banks in the next 12 months. He said, “It could be less and it could be more.” Simple math says it will be more, way more. There have already been 72 failed banks so far this year. According to Barr, at the same time last year, there were only 33 failed banks. In 2009, there were 140 total banks closed. Bar freely admitted, “The pace (of bank closings) is greater this year.” Barr expects more banks to fail in 2010 than 2009, but he would not give a number. He said, “We don’t provide numbers because to us it’s not the numbers, it’s the cost.” The latest list of “problem” banks from the FDIC now stands at 775. 73 banks were added to the list since the end of 2009. That is nearly a 10% increase in less than 5 months.

Read all of it.