Q : [[I'll trust the NY Times (which I quoted) before I'll put any faith ins statements by the usual left wing crowd posting here.

The US and Canada were built by people like Alexander Hamilton and Abraham Lincoln, who rejected the idea that class lines divided the national economy. They championed banks and traders and entrepreneurs, because a strong capitalist economy creates jobs. ]]
There is a difference between "capitalism" and "the free enterprise system." Unregulated capitalism, in fact, almost inevitably leads to monopolies, which drive small businesses out of the market -- and not by continuing to provide the best products & services for the best price.
Capitalism has more to do with 'earning' your living by holding & trading stock in other businesses than with starting and running your own business and creating jobs. In fact, a lot of the "growth" in our capitalist system over the past couple of decades has been achieved by "downsizing" and/or by shipping jobs to countries that exploit and abuse both workers and the environment.

A big problem with "banks" today in the US is that the investment (i.e., "gambling") banks have been able to merge with ordinary banks (that make money by managing people's checking and savings accounts, rather than market speculation).