First National Bank Of Straw Men

This here? This is a stupid, stupid argument.

The government's "stress-test" of the nation's largest banks could end up discouraging lending as banks hoard cash to appear healthier to regulators, banking analysts say.

The reason: most banks want to avoid taking more government money because of the onerous restrictions the government places on the funds. As a result, they are likely to become even more conservative with their money and pull back on lending—defeating a major goal of the bank bailout in the first place.

Which is a bit like saying "more difficult college exams are bad for the beer industry because having to study more leaves less time for binge drinking."

Assholes. Why would we want to encourage accountability among banks when they made bad decisions and lost hundreds of billions by betting trillions in IOUs on those decisions? We can't have that, it'll discourage banks to lend. You know what would solve the problem? Requiring banks that take CAP money to f'cking lend some of that money out to consumers and businesses.

But...no. We can't do that. Too hard on the poor little banks.