According to the latest projections, more than 250,000 jobs will be lost in the American banking sector due to the ever deepening economic turmoil.
That Merrill Lynch, which in 2008 held assets in excess of $1 trillion, can be pulled under the leaking umbrella of Bank of America in search of shelter, is a telling indicator indeed of the how deep the wounds inflicted on the financial sector have become.
Since the burst of the housing bubble late last year, the credit markets, the finance industry, and the US economy in general, have gone on a constant and speedy downturn.
In an effort to stop the economy from completely reeling out of the control, leaving in its wake a slew of bad debts, failed banks, job losses, frozen consumer spending, and just recently, an auto industry on the brink of collapse, the US government has released wave after wave of rescue packages in the form of direct investment into banks, short-term loans to financial institutions, and guarantees of real-estate backed loans.
Washington D.C. is pouring out money like there’s no tomorrow. Since the start of this crisis, the government has already apportioned a jaw-dropping $7 trillion on pledges of financial backing and bailout commitments.
Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase — two of the US’ top banks, and now both in the limelight.
Aside from having equally received a huge chunk of the $700 billion government bailout plan, $25 billion each to be exact, the two banks have also been rather busy lately expanding their respective financial empires with a series of takeovers and mergers involving no less than once-mighty names in the banking and investments industry: Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, Countrywide Financial and Merrill Lynch.
While a number of government officials still would like to avoid using the seemingly taboo “R” word (recession) in referring to the state of the US economy, a number of factors would otherwise indicate that in fact, it has been in that condition for almost a year now, without showing any signs of letting up.
Plummeting stocks, rising unemployment, investment houses, once thought to be bastions of high finance,closing shop one after another, and a general feeling of alarm among the American people only support the inescapable fact that indeed, the US is facing an economic crisis such that has not been known since the Great Depression in the 1930’s.
According to the latest projections, more than 250,000 jobs will be lost in the American banking sector due to the ever deepening economic turmoil. 
While a number of government officials still would like to avoid using the seemingly taboo “R” word (recession) in referring to the state of the US economy, a number of factors would otherwise indicate that in fact, it has been in that condition for almost a year now, without showing any signs of letting up.
