It appears by the total lack of coverage that the utter collapse of Europe's banking system is entirely irrelevant to the “fortress-like” balance sheets of u.s. banks… but it is not. Once again today, US financials saw bonds dumped across the senior and subordinated segments…

…and while U.S. financial stocks have fallen hard year-to-date, if credit is right – and it usually is on a cyclical basis – US bank stocks have a long way to go (as believe in book values is battered).

Of course, the CEOs will all tell investors there is nothing to worry about – just as David Stockman warned…

“in my experience is that when the crunch comes, bank CEOs lie”