The New York Post reports that insiders in the FDIC consider Geithner’s Bank stress tests a pointless exercise, aimed at the naive general public:

“The FDIC’s basic beef with the stress test is that it is not a credible way to assess how much additional cash beaten-down banks will need to weather what many Wall Street experts predict will be more losses in the coming months.”

“Many high-profile analysts already are voicing the concern that losses will pile up in areas most of Wall Street hasn’t watched closely, such as residential and commercial loans that are currently on banks’ balance sheets.”

The article also refers to a “growing rift” between the Treasury Department and the FDIC.  We doubt that rift really exists…Sheila Bair is clearly in cahoots with Timid Tim to smoke screen the banks’ true condition.