Regional broker/dealers have been ignored by the industry after their ranks were thinned by near-constant acquisition in the earlier part of this decade. Deals such as Merrill Lynch acquiring Advest, UBS acquiring McDonald Investments and Piper Jaffray, and Smith Barney absorbing Legg Mason's advisorforce shrunk this channel by more than 10% from 2004 to 2006. However, Regional broker/dealers reversed the attrition of advisors in 2009, replacing nearly all of the 4,000 lost advisors and increasing its headcount by more than 10% and its assets under management by 36%, the highest figures for any retail distribution channel.    More 

There are approximately 8,000 banks in the U.S, and 775 of them are on the FDIC's problem bank list (that's 9.8% of banks). But not to worry, as FDIC chairman Sheila Bair told Forbes, "most problem banks do not fail. The long-term average is about 19%." But that doesn't seem too reassuring. Maybe because while last year we saw 140 banks collapse, this year we have already seen 118--and we still have four months to go. Or maybe it's because the FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund has already been drained of $19.47 billion this year--and the fund is underwater to the tune of $33.66 billion (according to Richard Suttmeier for Forbes). And that's on top if the fact that the FDIC expects bank failures to cost the fund $60 billion through 2014.   More