We did so because otherwise, these banks – which are extremely numerous but account for only a small fraction of total banking system assets – would dominate any statements we might make about percentiles of the population distribution.
Asset valuations Let me conclude my assessment of current financial stability conditions with a discussion of asset valuation pressures. Prices of risky assets have increased in most major asset markets in recent months even as risk-free rates also rose. In equity markets,  -9price-to-earnings ratios now stand in the top quintiles of their historical distributions, while corporate bond spreads are near their post-crisis lows.