All right, pick a word to describe this economy.

You got it?

Okay, now, what are the odds do you think that your word and the word Wall Street banks are using are the same?

From American public media, This is Marketplace.

In Los Angeles, I'm Kai Rizzdahl.

It is Wednesday, today 15 April good as it always is.

To have you along, everybody.

We're going back to Vietnam, our series,

The Age of Work, in just a couple of minutes, but we begin today deep in the heart of American capitalism. The big banks are reporting quarterly profits this week, and the geopolitics

of this economy aside, it seems, now that we've heard from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup,

J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo and this morning Bank of America, it seems that things are going

just fine. All five of them reported healthy growth and painted a picture of an economy

that continues to chug along despite everything.

Marketplace is Megan McCarty Carino gets us going.

Banks can still make money when the rest of the economy goes haywire,

collecting fees as money moves around during a market freakout

or helping distressed companies sell assets.

But what's notable about this week's earnings is what

they say about consumers. And Tom S.A. at Seven's report research says banks are in a good

position to know. They're essentially financial supermarkets. And they really have a 360-degree view

of most American consumers' financial lives now, whether it's through checking,

loans, credit cards.

...