What was the period in American history when the nation went the longest without a single bank failure? It was from 2004 to 2007. For 32 consecutive months in that period, not a single one of the over 7,000 banks in America failed.
This ought to have set off alarm bells on the growing imbalances and problematic practices endemic in the American banking system. Instead, it was met with applause by the financial regulators charged with protecting the safety and soundness of a system that was veering toward collapse. As the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), who regulates national banks wrote in its 2006 Annual Report:
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