Amidst the fallout of yesterday's House vote against the first bailout package, the finger-pointing and blood pressure medication prescriptions are aplenty.
Lost in the fray is a suggestion by Senator Obama that the limit on money insured by the FDIC be increased to $250,000. That's an increase over the current limit of $100,000 per depositor, per bank. The FDIC insurance limit has not been adjusted since the Regan Administration. The first one. Furthermore, more than one-third (or $2.6 trillion) of money deposited in American banks is uninsured because of the $100,000 limit.
So at a time when the government is trying to avoid a panicky bank run, is there a compelling reason not to increase the limit to at least account for inflation over the last 28 years?
