Zombie Banks

I just heard an interesting story on NPR's finance show, Marketplace. Normally, money is boring or makes me anxious just thinking about it, but I enjoy that show sometimes, especially when they find intriguing ways to explain things. The story said that behemoths like Bank of America were neither dead nor alive; they were so burdened by bad debt and toxic assets that they could not contribute to the economy. The story was interspersed with clips from old zombie movies, and economists said that like the zombies, the banks probably needed to be shot or cremated rather than trying to revitalize them. Scary.