The US banking recovery is a sham

There may be plenty of gloom gathering elsewhere. But the moneylenders – or some of them at least – seem to be doing very nicely. For example, US giant JP Morgan Chase has just revealed a staggering 76% jump in its second-quarter profits. So is it safe to buy US bank shares again? No. Those bumper profits are nothing like as good as they appear on the surface. Nor will the figures set to be reported by other US lenders be as good as they first appear.