Via Susie, this from the Philadelphia Daily News:

My confidence comes in part from testimony by Jbefore the House Banking Committee. Dugan, who runs the , which regulates interstate banks, was beaming about how great things were just seven months ago.

"In general," [John C. Dugan of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] said on March 4, "the national banking system has been healthy and vibrant."

The fundamental sound of the banking system I'm looking at is a long, loud gasp. In 1987, there were 17,345 FDIC-insured banks in America. By 1997, there were 10,924. By last year, we were down to 8,534. This year, we're down to 8,423 and dropping.

Meanwhile, Citigroup, with our help, is worth $2.9 trillion; Bank of America, with our help, is worth $2.8 trillion; and J.P. Morgan Chase, after we helped them gobble up Washington Mutual, is worth $2.04 trillion.

Together they own 31.3 percent of all our deposits, according to the FDIC. How big is that?

It's too big to fail. If they decide to get slap-happy with our money, we will have to save them to save ourselves.

You can expect fees for loans and checking accounts to go up. Expect lower yields on deposits, if that's possible.

You know what I think? I think we need to help the banks out, so that they don't fail. Here's an idea:

Instead of them paying us interest on our deposits, how about us paying them for the privilege of storing our money? It could work sort of like a phone card: If you don't pay them, say $10.00 every month, your account evaporates and they get to keep whatever's in it.

How long before they try that, do you think?

NOTE Of course, this will only work if hard cash is outlawed, because people would just withdraw their money and hoard it. But if we outlawed hard cash, that would make all transactions traceable, wouldn't it? Very useful for, um, fighting terrorists.