Stress Test for Banks Exposes Rift on Wall St.

[elleng]

"Big banks keep insisting that they have all the capital they need — a claim that might strike many people as absurd at a time the government is spending billions of taxpayer dollars to prop up the financial industry.

So here is a surprise: By some common measures, the banks do have enough capital.

The problem is, it is not the kind of capital investors think the banks need."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/business/economy/25bank.html?th&emc=th

[notesdev]

1. There's no way to positively say they have enough capital

when so much of the dirtiest stuff is held in off-balance-sheet accounts. In fact, the very existence of this off-balance nonsense is probably the very best (of many) reasons why any assertion of solvency by any of these institutions ought to be subject to the severest skepticism.