Lou Whiteman

Glass half empty, that's a desperate consumer putting everything on their credit card because they can't afford to pay their bills.

We don't really know the answer there.

JP Morgan made headlines, a huge, huge boost in their provision for credit loss, up to $4.6 billion.

That's basically, you have to.

As a shareholder, you don't necessarily mind this, because they are required to set aside funds just in case the loans go bad, so they can still pay their depositors.

It's based on what they're seeing.

A big uptick would normally suggest

something.

They're seeing things turning south.

They're getting worried.

But they're also buying the apple cart.

So part of that, and maybe much of it, is just trying to get ready for that.

Everything looks okay, but not great, which is, I think, what we kind of knew anyway.

The banks had a great year last year.

The stocks all sold off after announcements.

I think that is almost expectations got ahead of themselves.

They're fine, but there's a lot to at least

huh, let's keep watching this.

I keep coming back to this.

We tend to want to look at it as a binary thing, like the consumer is healthy or the consumer is not.