Jason Hall

That's not just the strength of the economy, but it's also the product of an administration that's willing to let big M&A happen, plus the stock market that's good.

You talked about trading volume.

But IPOs are a big deal, too.

Morgan was in on Circle and Figma's IPO that happened recently.

It also advised on the Walgreens deal that took that company private.

Look at Goldman Sachs.

It just had one of its best quarters ever, benefited from the exact same trends.

Huge trading activity.

Think about institutional trading.

That's a big thing for these investment banks.

We have refinancing, a business-friendly administration.

All of those things are encouraging more deal-making.

The big $55 billion acquisition of EA, that was Goldman that was advising.

You put it all together, on the consumer side, the banks are doing well.

We don't see any big immediate risks in the economy.

Nobody took big moves to bolster their balance sheets for imminent credit losses.

If their comments weren't sanguine, they were very cautiously optimistic about the economy.

Maybe management's whistling through the graveyard and not as confident as they proclaim.

But I think it's just more evidence that enough of the consumer class is strong enough to prop up the economy.

And the biggest banks, I think, are largely de-risked from the middle- and lower-income families that are struggling right now.