[基础分析] U.S. Bank Profit ‘Imbalances Are Re-Occurring’: Chart of Day

何鸿燊

By Mark Gilbert

April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Record low U.S. interest rates are boosting the profitability of financial companies, creating the same kind of imbalances that fueled the credit crisis, according to Jim Reid, a Deutsche Bank AG strategist in London.

The CHART OF THE DAY tracks finance industry profit in billions of dollars, measured by the yellow line, against earnings for non-finance companies in green and nominal U.S. gross domestic product, shown by the red dotted line.

“It seems incredible that financials are now scaling their 2006/2007 heights again,” Reid wrote in a research note published yesterday. “The dramatic imbalances are re- occurring.”

In July 2008, Reid said that U.S. banks had made “excess profits” of about $1.2 trillion in the previous decade, compared with how much they should have made based on economic growth, and that those excesses would be wiped out. Since then, U.S. financial firms have written down the value of their assets by about $1.15 trillion, according to Bloomberg data.

“We are now all well aware that rather than overhaul a financial system that arguably contributed to the problems of the last two to three years, the authorities have created the conditions for the industry to thrive,” Reid wrote this week. “Only time will tell how the regulators and politicians will decide to address these imbalances.”