Are Your Bank's Trust Clients Worried?

Interviewed in Barron's, NYU economist Nouriel Roubini sees bad times ahead:

We are in the second inning of a severe, protracted recession, which started in the first quarter of this year and is going to last at least 18 months, through the middle of next year. A systemic banking crisis will go on for awhile, with hundreds of banks going belly up.

Roubini foresaw the housing bubble ending badly and the collapse of subprime mortgages, so we have to take his grim vision seriously. (You can also find the interview on his blog.)

Back in the Mad Men era, when trust clients and beneficiaries remembered hearing of the horrors of the Great Depression and the Bank Holiday from their parents, trust departments had to spread the word that trust securities and other property were held separately from the bank's assets and would not be affected by the bank's failure.

Time to get out the word again?