Banks Must Start Consolidating in order to dig ourselves out of this Depression.

Take a look at this stitched picture!

Within a few yards in lower Manhattan, you run across so many different banks, it makes your head spin! From left to right:

• Citibank
• Chase
• TD Bank
• Bank of America
• Emigrant Savings Bank
• HSBC

The problem with all this is that these banks do not offer the consumer any unique product or service not already offered by their competitors. Their raison d'etre (purpose of existence) is solely to take business away from the neighbor next door -- self-enrichment. This is precisely the Wall Street culture that has brought on the current financial crisis, as articulated by President Obama in his recently numerous speeches on the matter.

For too long these banks have thrived on cut-throat competition, not on providing a meaningful service to the consumer. Each tries to convince the consumer that they're offering the highest interest-rate, the most savings, "free checking" with "no hidden fees". Consumers love it -- they love being told "switch to us and save a bundle". What they don't realize is that every "saving" comes at a cost and the overall package they're getting with the bank they're considering switching to is probably no better than their current one. What's worse is that by countenancing this wasteful competition between the banks, they're not saving but costing themselves money in the long run.

Look at all those banks lined up in this stretch of super expensive real estate and tell me it wouldn't be far more effective and cost-efficient to build a single large bank on the premises instead? Consumers would get much better service, they'd be so much less confused about banking practices (so that they can apply their mental resources where it's really needed -- in energy and education) and, did I mention, they'd save a ton of money! The superbank won't be wasting billions of dollars on cut-throat deceptive advertising as they currently do and the savings will ultimately be passed on to consumers in the form of lower banking fees and interest rates.

What do you think?