Stress Test Anxiety

The past few newsdays have been full of commentary on the government's 'stress testing' of banks, with the results due for release at 5 pm EDT today (Thursday, May 7).

I would have thought the banks and the people who run them were stressed enough already.  Who needs to add to it with a test?  

And why this test anyway?  What do we want to find out?  The banks are losing money? We know that.  They aren't lending to anyone?  We know that too.   We've had them hooked up to a cash IV for a while and they still look pekid. 

All this stress testing does - or more accurately, all this talk about it does, is stress us, the panicky public, out.  Big Time.

And how will the results be graded?  Will your bank get an 'A', 'B', or something worse?  Will they be made to prominently display their grades in their bank windows like restaurants in Los Angeles?  If so, and the grading scales are equivalent, don't do business with a 'D'.  If you do you will cramp up and hemorrhage change for days...