Barclays To Buy American

Looking to boost business in the States and shore up some safe capital, Barclays PLC is aiming to acquire a U.S.-based commercial bank sometime in the near future, with names like SunTrust, Comerica and Fifth Third being kicked around as possible targets.

Barclays has been draining some long-range shots as of late: It avoided the mess that many of its competitors drowned in during the past couple years, managed to pick up the good assets that the now-bankrupt Brothers Lehman left behind, and won the bidding to slap its name on that sure-to-be-an-eyesore-and-a-traffic-and-daily-commuter nightmare called the Barclays Center, whose groundbreaking ceremony is slated for this Thursday (full disclosure: I live less than four blocks away from where Bruce and Jay-Z intend to start digging for gold).