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With banks suffering a squeeze on consumer banking profits, the question for institutions large and small is whether emerging mobile and other services can ever make up for declining revenues elsewhere.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's Edward DeMarco is pushing a plan merge some Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operations as Congress and the Obama administration continue to punt on housing reform.

A BusinessWeek cover sparked controversy recently because many saw it as racist. But it also stirred concerns because it reinforced a persistent myth about the financial crisis: that it was caused by predatory borrowers, not lenders.

Bankers often complain about regulatory intrusion into the free market, but the industry enjoys a host of subsidies. A recent IMF report showing the largest banks get an implicit subsidy to their funding costs equal to their entire profits was just the latest example. From the FHLBs to FHA, from Fannie and Freddie to the FDIC charter, all banks receive some degree of government support and protection from competition.

There's an oversupply of old-fashioned branches, and banks don't know what to do with them, says industry consultant and executive recruiter Rod Taylor.