Are we in for a wave of bank failures?

Remember the thrift crisis? Few people predicted the decimation of the S&L industry in the late 1980s and 1990s. Many went under due to imprudent real estate lending and, in some big-name cases, fraud. The pundits have yet to seize on this analogy, but it makes sense in light of comments John Dugan, the Comptroller of the Currency, made to the Financial Times that we may be in for some outright bank failures. Smaller banks that perhaps lent too aggressively for condo projects and some commercial properties are in for some turbulence. Failures may not rise to S&L levels of course. But given that there have been almost no commercial bank failures in recent years, any sort of uptick would be significant.  

For more:
- here's the Financial Times article

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