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bf95520446f86f380e48b127_ms7458c.jpg Margaret Scott

Toxic Tests

The US government is now permitting ten of America’s biggest banks to repay about $70 billion of the capital injected into them last fall, after the banks passed so-called “stress tests” and raised additional capital. But neither the stress tests, which G-8 finance ministers have now agreed to replicate, nor the ability to raise fresh capital prove that the banks are truly healthy.

CAMBRIDGE – The United States government is now permitting ten of America’s biggest banks to repay about $70 billion of the capital injected into them last fall. This decision followed the banks having passed the so-called “stress tests” of their financial viability, which the US Treasury demanded, and the success of some of them in raising the additional capital that the tests suggested they needed.

Many people have inferred from this sequence of events that US banks – which are critical to both the American and world economies – are now out of trouble. But that inference is seriously mistaken.

In fact, the US stress tests didn’t attempt to estimate the losses that banks have suffered on many of the “toxic assets” that have been at the heart of the financial crisis. Nevertheless, the US model is catching on. In a meeting this month, finance ministers of G-8 countries agreed to follow the US and perform stress tests on their banks. But, if the results of such tests are to be reliable, they should avoid the US tests’ fundamental flaw.

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