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...

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...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).

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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"