by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:

I know that there is a lot going on in the world right now, but I just had to write about what is happening to our banks.  High interest rates and chaos in the real estate industry are combining to put an enormous amount of pressure on our largest financial institutions.  As a result, banks are getting very tight with their money, they are closing down hundreds of branches, and they are laying off thousands of workers.  We are in the early stages of the worst financial crisis since 2008 and 2009, and I fully expect conditions to get even worse in the months ahead.