Stressed Out

We could refer to our once-upon-a-time Currency Currents that criticized the stress tests administered to US banks, but really we wouldn’t be saying much more than: ‘they were a phony, propaganda-laden strategy that aimed to deceive investors of the obvious risks that remained with US banks.’

Despite much recognition from news sources of the problems, limitations, and shortcomings of the stress tests, they achieved what their designers had hoped: relative calm in the markets. Even though we were failing to truly test these banks and fairly evaluate them, we could say we did enough.