The Center of the Financial Crisis, Four Years Later

Despite the focus Wall Street and Zuccotti Park, which was the staging area for the Occupy Wall Street protests, the center of the the financial system is no longer in the financial district in downtown Manhattan. Instead, most of the big banks are now located in midtown.

However, while the geographic location of the financial industry has shifted a few miles to the north, one thing remains the same: the size of the largest banks and the way they are all tied to each other. The close ties the banks share could cause another financial crisis despite all of the talk surrounding Too Big To Fail (TBTF). Unfortunately, there has mostly been just "talk" and little action on TBTF, leaving the financial system and the economy at extreme risk should another bank flounder.

Here is some more on the shifting geographic center of the financial industry, as well as some commentary on TBTF from American Public Media's Marketplace:

Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio