Bethany McLean on bank capital levels

Capital isn’t this pile of money sitting somewhere, it’s an accounting construct.  And if you don’t have the accounting right then the capital is just an illusion anyway so I am a little weary of this notion that has taken hold…that if we have enough capital we’re safe come hell or high-water, I don’t buy it.

~ Bethany McLean, "Bank capital is an illusion: Bethany McLean," Daily Ticker, April 29, 2014

(McLean thinks we’re much better off than we were in 2008 and that though there might be another crisis, it won’t be in the banking sector.)