I look at a bank has a place to operate my business and personal finances from and not a place to invest into other then where I leave a little savings. They have become incredulous over the last 20 years. To the point of criminal. Their rates, terms, fee schedules, and policy changes have cause everything we have seen in these last 9 years with help of our government leadership which had their head in the sand I believe or worst their hand out. The simplest of solutions will work best: The break up of these banks as they exist now back to the day when investment houses, insurance industries, and true banks (lenders and mortgage providers) were not allow to partner. The reinstatement of lost anti trust legislation. The revisiting of Fee limits and interest rate ceilings. And limiting foreign banks (not to mention foreign investors) which do not have the same limitations as their American counter parts. We need a strong regulatory system looking at the banks books and making it policy to have congress examine any loan or policy changes a federally insured bank makes. Imagine your mortgage rate was to change over night and their was nothing you could do. Oh basically that is why we are in this mess. But the American people did something they said FU and they are about to do the same with their credit cards debt get ready. The fact that they haven't already tells you something about most Americans. If our concern is to strengthen the American economy and we had used that same money allocated to the banks toward our infer-structure, key manufacturing industries (which have been under tremendous unfair competition by foreign propped upped competitors), first time small business low rate loans (like a student loan program) and on new or self sufficient energy resources, Which would of had a better short and long term effect on this countries economy and way of life? If we get out of this mess relatively unscathed it will be in spite of what we do to help those dysfunctional banks (and the current banking system as it stands today) and not because we saved them. Save the deposits (which in inflated dollars is about 1,000,000 per account) that is what the promise was not the investor.