Do You Expect More Banks to Go South? Plenty ofpeople and species migrate, but a massive 83% of our GlobeSt.comreaders see more banks going south. Unfortunately, it's not theweather driving them there. A few months ago, Bear Stearns had itswell-known troubles and now others banks are looking shaky.Granted, 17% don't believe more banks will fold, but let's hope theworst is behind us. As grim as the news is, Eric Anton, executivemanaging director at Eastern Consolidated, told GlobeSt.com thatwhile things are going to be bad, some good will come out of thesesituations.

"There's no question that more banks will fail. We're halfwaythrough 2008 and about five banks have failed nationally. They dida study about 15 years ago during the last recession, showing thatthe rates of banks closing was a much higher number than what wesee now. We're in pretty good shape compared to the 1992-1994 timeframe, but certainly more banks will go out. Even in the best oftimes you have certain banks that make bad decisions and go out.The numbers don't surprise me at all.

"The smaller regional banks seem to have made mistakes buyingall kinds of investments that were illiquid, mortgage-basedsecurities, etc. I don't think it's the subprime that's killingthese banks. It was investing in other things where they didn'tknow what they were buying: CMBS pieces and commercial loans thatturned bad. A couple big commercial loans can really wipe out asmaller bank. We may see one of the big guys go down. There couldbe another Bear Stearns lurking out there. You never until it's toolate.