IT SURE DIDN’T SEEM LIKE THEY WERE GETTING OFF EASY AT THE TIME

Writing in The Atlantic, the highly overrated Mohamed El-Erian warns that banks aren’t out of the woods yet:

[T]here is the even trickier challenge of restoring trust in the role of banks in a vibrant and growing economy. Because banks got off way too easily in 2009-2010 — even escaping a windfall profit tax — society remains suspicious of bankers and their motivations. The longer this persists, the greater the setback to a complete recovery from the global financial crisis. [Emph. added]

Odd. I don’t remember Wachovia, National City, Washington Mutual, Countrywide, Lehman Brothers, or Bear Stearns getting off especially easily in 2009 and 2010-or even Citi or BofA, for that matter. And in the wake of the CARD Act, the Durbin Amendment, the advent of the CFPB, and Dodd-Frank generally, I doubt bankers need to worry much about any windfall-profits tax, or the risk of generating any windfall profits that might be subject to it. . . .