These are bad days for big boys in high finance Jeff Cox | @JeffCoxCNBCcom May 2014 | 3:52 PM ET These not happy days for big banks whether on Wall Street or Fleet Street. There's been a steady stream of negative headlines suggesting that five years after the end of the financial crisis, the bell finally may be tolling for too-big-to-fail financial institutions. Consider: JPMorgan Chase and Barclays both have announced huge first-quarter trading declinesâ20 percent and 41 percent respectivelyâand others are expected to follow suit. Barclays said it will begin a massive layoff program in which it will lose 19,000 employees over the next two and a half years. Fines from regulators continue to pile up stemming from crisis-era bad behavior. The latest domino looks to be Bank of America, which could have to pay a levy in excess of the $13 billion already extracted from JPMorgan. Recent leaks in major publications indicate that Credit Suisse is nearing a settlement that will see it plead guilty to criminal charges for aiding its customers in avoiding taxes. But banking problems stem deeper than legal issues, which in themselves are onerous.On several levels there are some fundamental shifts that are happening in the way these big financial supermarkets do business. As for the problems with trading, the issues extend beyond the low-rate, low volatility environment. The rise of high-frequency trading and other platforms has eaten into profits as well. http://www.cnbc.com/id/101658888
You can only scam patsies if they haven't yet caught on to the game. With the enlightening media market coverage, the media has made a bad situation ( HFT) worse yet IMO.