Here is a frontpage headline from The Wall Street Journal weekend edition just a few days ago:

Strong Economy Boosts Banks Results

In the article they said that consumers and businesses drive a rise in earnings at the largest U.S firms, yet I found nothing in the article that indicated that the economy is strong.

Here are a few pieces of information from the article: 

The four biggest banks took one-time charges of $9 billion to cover fees that they had to pay to the FDIC for other banks that failed (including Silicon Valley Bank).

“Citigroup swung to a $1.8 billion loss in the fourth quarter.” The company is pushing to “streamline” its operations, and just announced the slashing of 20,000 jobs.

“The four big banks charged off $6.6 billion in loans in the fourth quarter,” which is double what they charged off in 2022. I had no idea that doubling the provision for loan losses indicated a strong economy. A significant part of these increased loan losses is because of the deteriorating value of commercial real estate, caused greatly by a transition to remote work, caused by dictatorial government edicts that, according to Anothony Fauci, were not based on science but “sort of just appeared.”

In one paragraph, the article states this: “But there are signs that high costs have started to leave more consumers overstretched.” I had no idea that consumers being overstretched indicates a strong economy.

In another paragraph the article said this :“The bank’s results showed that consumers are borrowing more on their credit cards, carrying over higher balances and falling behind on their payments in greater numbers.” Again, what about having to borrow more to pay your bills and having more delinquencies indicates a growing and “strong” economy?

And lastly:

Americans have also increasingly struggled to keep up with monthly car payments, which have jumped in size. Car prices shot up during the pandemic, and higher interest rates made monthly payments more expensive. Auto delinquencies rose further above prepandemic levels at JP Morgan and Wells Fargo….

Maybe the WSJ should explain that car prices have shot up because of higher inflation, and because the car companies have to cover the massive losses being incurred thanks to government policies pushing inefficient, expensive, impractical battery-powered cars.

If the WSJ wanted to see why the big banks had such a big improvement in profits in 2023, they should have just read page two of the same editorial, which reported that the Federal Reserve took a massive $114.3 billion loss in 2023 because they paid banks more in interest expense than they earned on their investments. That is a heck of a way to run a business.

The Fed made $58.8 billion in 2022, and lost $114.3 billion in 2023. Their reduced income was greater than the increased income at the banks; from the WSJ:

Fed Posts Largest-Ever Annual Operating Loss

Central bank’s deficit of $114.3 billion last year resulted from its efforts to stimulate economy and then stamp out inflation

And this, from Reuters:

Rising income expenses pushed the Federal Reserve system deep into a record loss last year, the central bank said in preliminary figures released on Friday.

Fed income after expenses came in at a negative $114.3 billion last year, versus $58.8 billion in positive income the year before. The loss was tied to a jump in interest expenses faced by the central bank amid a rate hike campaign aimed at cooling inflation.

The Fed paid a mix of financial institutions $281.1 billion last year, versus $102.4 billion in 2022. Meanwhile, interest it earned from bonds the central bank owns totaled $163.8 billion last year, versus $170 billion in 2022.

It is absolute disinformation for the WSJ to tell the public that the big banks profits went up because of a strong economy. It is a shame that the news pages of the WSJ are no better than the WaPo, NYT, and other media outlets as they campaign for Joe Biden.

It is no wonder that the public has so little respect for, or trust in, what supposed journalists write or report. They are mostly pushing the Democrat agenda to remake or destroy the greatest, most prosperous, and most free country that has ever existed.

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