US banking system still in turmoil despite bailout

With banks in the US closing faster than at anytime since the Great Depression and executives still receiving huge bonuses, tax-payers are questioning if their tax-dollars were well spent on the bailout.

Radio host Thom Hartman says the only way out of the current situation is more regulation.

“The bank problem is the banks don’t make anything. Historically in the United States we had banks and we had investment houses, and they were separated,” Hartman told RT. “And the banks are these boring places that predictably made a small profit, took your deposits, took mortgages and stuff like that. And that got blown up in the end of Clinton administration. So, the gamblers, the investment houses, could get access to the banking line. And now they are trying to re-regulate this and there is so much profit being made that they are running into some really, really stiff opposition – the profits that they’re making seem obscene. We want to know that our deposits are safe – banks are closing every day at rates that we have not seen since the Great Depression.”