Somebody had to write a book defending big banks. For years now, they have been the subject of nonstop attacks by Congress, regulators, state attorneys general, irate mortgage holders, and the press. So veteran banking analyst Richard X. Bove has stepped up to write Guardians of Prosperity: Why America Needs Big Banks, which demands an end to our reflexive ill will toward the likes of JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs.

Flying in the face of conventional opinion, Bove makes many worthy points. First, we need healthy banks. When banks were not healthy, during the financial crisis, the country hit the skids and people were angry. Second, he says, “it is critical to reestablish balance” in our attitudes toward banks. While banks were not blameless for the financial crisis, they were hardly the only culprits, nor was every individual bank a culprit. Third, many of the punitive regulations adopted against banks will punish consumers as much as they will hinder banks. Thus, restrictions on credit and debit card fees have prompted banks to end free checking. At very least, we should pay greater attention to the effects of such rules.

Another highly controversial point is that the size of big banks, often cited as a threat, is actually an advantage, or so the author asserts. Smaller and undiversified lenders (such as savings and loans) disappeared for a reason: they were one-trick ponies. We should not be so quick to “shrink” the behemoths whose diversity confers a strength.

And finally, Bove claims that America’s obsession with preventing future bailouts is misplaced. America’s signature bank bailout, the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program), will cost the taxpayers nothing and was successful in getting the financial sector back on its feet. “It is really difficult to believe,” Bove writes with palpable astonishment, “that this government would have a policy to get rid of struggling financial institutions without trying to help them.”

To illustrate the singularity of our preoccupation with banks, Bove notes the ferocity with which three New York State attorney generals attacked the financial industry. In contrast, “Michigan never sued the auto industry … Texas does not sue the oil industry. Florida does not sue tourists. California does not sue the entertainment industry. Iowa does not sue its farmers.”