Chart of the Day: It’s a Good Time to Be a Bank

The latest FDIC report is out, and I know you’ve been waiting for it. Check out how our banks are doing!

Isn’t that great? And don’t be bitter just because you and I are more likely to be getting 2 percent raises this year. America’s banks made their money the old fashioned way: they lobbied for it. The FDIC explains:

The 5,542 FDIC-insured commercial banks and savings institutions reported net income of $60.2 billion during the three months ended June 30, an increase of $12.1 billion (25.1 percent) from a year earlier. Higher net operating revenue (the sum of net interest income and noninterest income) and a lower effective tax rate contributed to the increase in industry net income. Assuming the effective tax rate before the new tax law, net income would have totaled an estimated $53.8 billion, an increase of $5.6 billion (11.7 percent) from second quarter 2017.

Without the Republican tax cut, bank earnings would have increased $5.6 billion last quarter. But with the Republican tax cut, bank earnings increased $12.1 billion. Ka ching! We should be seeing some very nice bonuses on Wall Street this year.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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