From 24/7 Wall Street:

The FDIC has been discussing the idea of banks prepaying their risk-based assessments for the last quarter of this year and all of 2010, 2011, and 2012. The move appears desperate because it is. The agency said in a memo today that it was out of money. The "staff estimates that both the Fund balance and the reserve ratio as of September 30, 2009, will be negative."

It would probably shock most people to find out that the part of the government charged with insuring their bank deposits has no money to do so.

The FDIC boil wants to take money from America's banks now to fund trouble that will occur primarily over the next year across the entire banking sector. The industry will in effect loan itself money at no interest to allow firms that fail to make sure that their depositors are kept whole.

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