DIF Goes Into 'We're Screwed' Territory

The Deposit Insurance Fund has gone negative for the first time since 1992.

Officially, the DIF was at -$8.2 billion at the end of last September, according to data released today.

Additionally, the FDIC's "problem list" of banks is up 33% from the end June to 552. The total assets of "problem" institutions reached $345.9 billion at the end of September, up about 15% in the third quarter.

This is not good. As Rolfe Winkler at Reuters aptly pointed out, these numbers do not even include Citigroup and Bank of America, for example.

Sheila Bair, chairman of the FDIC, tried to put the best face on the results:


I wish I were as confident as she.