FDIC Insured -- backed by the full faith and trust of the US Government

FDIC: $19 billion now backs over $4.8 trillion

There’s nearly $5 trillion worth of insured deposits in the American banking system. But the FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) is less than 1% of that total: $18.9 billion. And it’s falling fast, down from $52.4 billion (-64%) at the end of 2007. [Having trouble seeing the red highlighted area in the first chart? Then you see my point. I use constant dollars so readers can see the inflation-adjusted growth of insured deposits. Click to enlarge]

FDIC doesn’t have the resources to bail out the depositors of even one large failed bank, much less the entire banking system. And let’s not kid ourselves: The entire banking system remains very much at risk. Source

UK: the next Iceland?

The top five U.K. banks have $10 trillion of [debt] assets and their [UK] GDP is only $2.13 trillion. The whole country could fall into the ocean. The top five U.S. banks [debt assets] represent only about 60 percent of GDP by comparison. Source

What is the capital of Iceland?
Answer: $25

"asking an economist to predict the future is like asking the Christmas turkey what's for dinner on Christmas: based on its entire lifetime of experience, the turkey expects to be fed on Christmas, not to be eaten. As far as the turkey is concerned, Christmas is a black swan-type event." Source: Taleb