Chart of the Day: It’s a Good Time to Be a Bank

The latest FDIC report is out, and I know you’ve been waiting for it. Check out how our banks are doing!

Isn’t that great? And don’t be bitter just because you and I are more likely to be getting 2 percent raises this year. America’s banks made their money the old fashioned way: they lobbied for it. The FDIC explains:

The 5,542 FDIC-insured commercial banks and savings institutions reported net income of $60.2 billion during the three months ended June 30, an increase of $12.1 billion (25.1 percent) from a year earlier. Higher net operating revenue (the sum of net interest income and noninterest income) and a lower effective tax rate contributed to the increase in industry net income. Assuming the effective tax rate before the new tax law, net income would have totaled an estimated $53.8 billion, an increase of $5.6 billion (11.7 percent) from second quarter 2017.

Without the Republican tax cut, bank earnings would have increased $5.6 billion last quarter. But with the Republican tax cut, bank earnings increased $12.1 billion. Ka ching! We should be seeing some very nice bonuses on Wall Street this year.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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