Stiglitz sceptique sur la santé retrouvée des banques

Commentaires sur la santé financière apparente des banques (bloomberg via Atrios):

(Stiglitz dit qu'en soutenant les banques l'Etat ne fait que gagner du temps et un autre ajoute que les profits rapportés pour Q1 sont de la poudre aux yeux liés aux nouvelles règles comptables)

The revival may be short-lived. Analysts who have examined the quarterly profits and government tests say that accounting rule changes and rosy assumptions are making the institutions look healthier than they are.

The government probably wants to win time for the banks, keeping them alive as they struggle to earn their way out of the mess, says economist Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University in New York. The danger is that weak banks will remain reluctant to lend, hobbling President Barack Obama’s efforts to pull the economy out of recession.

Citigroup’s $1.6 billion in first-quarter profit would vanish if accounting were more stringent, says Martin Weiss of Weiss Research Inc. in Jupiter, Florida. “The big banks’ profits were totally bogus,” says Weiss, whose 38-year-old firm rates financial companies. “The new accounting rules, the stress tests: They’re all part of a major effort to put lipstick on a pig.”