by Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse Blog:

Should we be surprised that we are witnessing so many failures all around us?  After all, the mainstream media claims that the U.S. economy is doing just great.  Of course the truth is that the economy is not in good shape at all.  Those in positions of power have been desperately trying to prop up the system, but it continues to steadily fall apart.  Earlier this year, we witnessed the second largest bank failure in U.S. history, the third largest bank failure in U.S. history, and the fourth largest bank failure in U.S. history.  The Federal Reserve implemented extreme measures in an attempt to keep more banks from failing, but now another one has failed.  On Friday, Heartland Tri-State Bank collapsed and the FDIC took control and arranged a sale…