Ed

I just like the more I talk to bankers about this process of consolidation, the harder it looks to me from the outside.

No, you're like, you're the national bank of wherever, like, you know, whatever it is, you're the head of...

name the town you want, you know what I mean?

Middletown, wherever.

And you're ahead of the national, like a Middletown, you were the man at the country club.

You're the head of the rotary, you know, everybody loves you and you got this great job in this great life.

And like basically the deal, if you sell your bank, you're no longer the man anymore.

And you're looking down at all the people who work for you and say, you say, look, it's been great.

We just got bought out at a premium valuation.

It's great for the shareholders.

A third of you are going to get fired.

Goodbye.

Yes, exactly.

And, you know, I don't want to hurt the people around me.

And, you know, the opposite mal-incentive also applies.

So they don't have, if you're the head of a small regional bank, your CEO, you have a strong incentive not to sell.

If you're the buying bank, you have a strong incentive to overpay.

Barclays, the investment bank, did a great chart of this.

There's like an incredibly strong correlation between bank size in terms of assets and banker CEO pay.

So like if you run a bigger bank, you just get paid more money.