Class-Action Suits -- Random Post; Banks With An Incredible Amount of Money -- Random Post

This is entirely random, a post about class-action suits, but could be important down the line.

Forbes is reporting:

The Supreme Court heard a case last week that could add new limitations on class actions, potentially adding to a trend that has gained momentum within the judicial body in recent years.

This is why it is important:

The oral argument came on the heels of the Court’s recent decisions curbing class actions.  In a 2011 decision, AT&T v. Concepcion, the Court allowed companies to evade class actions by directing their contractual partners into individual arbitration proceedings.

The ruling had an immediate impact.  More than 75 class actions were stopped or significantly hampered within its first year, according to Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization.  Plus, companies like Microsoft updated their agreements with consumers in response to the decision.  Concepcion will likely weigh heavily on the Court’s thinking in the American Express case.

Besides the Concepcion case, the Court also ruled in favor of Wal-Mart in 2011, bringing to an end what was the largest employee class action in the nation’s history.  Both rulings have supplemented Congressional attempts to curb class actions during the past two decades.

Meanwhile, CNBC is reporting:

"In the first quarter of 2013, the banking industry will make more money than in any quarter in the history of American banking," he said. "You have so much excess capital in the banking industry at the present time that you have to go back to 1938 to find a year in which the percentage of capital to assets was as high as it is now."