In the mid-October the ECB will announce the results of the Asset Quality Review (AQR), which is a bank stress test by another name. The ECB has measured the riskiness of the European domestic banking system in an effort to measure how much capital banks will need to raise to prevent systemic solvency problems. It is an act of absurdity in some regards because many of Europe’s banks have bought huge amounts of sovereign debt (i.e. Italian and Spanish banks purchasing Italian and Spanish bonds and notes) because they carry a zero risk weighting, requiring no reserves. The problem is that the banks’ assets hide the poor financial health of the banking sector. While European governments are able to borrow at ridiculous rates, private individuals are not able to access credit, which keeps the European economy at a standstill. If the bank stress tests don’t show a dire situation then Mario Draghi will be hard pressed to achieve the massive QE program he would like to undertake.