Meredith Whitney talks about the ‘banking whitewash’, saying that the recent gains in many banks (they have been beating expectations by and large in Q1) are not all down to ‘recovery’ but instead due to other factors.

She says that the factors that lead to these gains are not replicable and that the underlying assets are still deteriorating. This makes for some interesting observation because the great deleveraging of both companies and individuals is still in full swing so there is little reason to doubt the observations Meredith Whitney makes, rather it will be how these factors play into the real economy that concern me.