I am speaking of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s list of 117 “problem banks.” According to its latest press release, the number of banks that may have squandered away their depositors’ cash is up 30%, quarter over quarter, the highest it’s been in more than five years.

What’s more, the FDIC anticipates that this list will surely grow over the next few months or maybe even weeks, as profits are down some 87% compared to the same quarter last year. Back then, the guys who should know more about money than anyone besides the folks who print it made some $36.8 billion.

Now they are down to less than $5 billion in profits. And even that paltry gain is hardly secure, for, as we have seen lately, a single American bank can lose $5 billion in the blink of an eye.

How did they make so much money then, and how have they arrived at such dire straits? As most folks know by now, bankers are suffering from the pains of their own excess. Some 20% of the loans they made to anybody who could tie their own shoes are now overdue 90 days or more.

A curious soul might be tempted to wander by the FDIC’s Web site to determine whether or not their very own bank is teetering on the brink. Unfortunately, they would be stymied in this effort.