I would like to write the story that is published beneath the headline “Banks and Credit Card Companies Lead Country to Prosperity.” It should be clear that there are things bankers do not know how to do. One such is lead. I am also troubled that bankers do not know what to do with the tax dollars they have received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), such as lend. Since I cannot write that story, please accept this one.
If eve
r there was an industry that needs some positive public relations, it is banking. Bank failures have become commonplace. In Georgia, for example, there have been five bank failures in the last five months and the hits just keep on coming. Another fifteen banks are expected to go under this year, more than twice the number that collapsed there during the savings and loan crisis twenty years ago.
Until last year, California had seen only 3 bank failures during the previous decade – in 1999, 2000 and 2003. According to the FDIC, California suffered 5 bank failures in 2008 alone.
- PFF Bank and Trust, Pomona, California, closed.
- Downey Savings and Loan Association, F.A., Newport Beach, California, closed.
- Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles, California, closed.
- First Heritage Bank N.A., Newport Beach, California, closed.
- IndyMac Bank, F.S.B., Pasadena, California, closed. (The FDIC was named Conservator.)
Banking is a highly regulated business. Despite news commentaries that bankers got greedy as banks were deregulated and became corrupt, bank consumers have protection. In the case of IndyMac Bank, the third-largest bank to fail in American history, a run on deposits and rising defaults made Federal regulators seize it. The mortgage loan portion of the banking business earned derision for being lax, and in some cases, predatory in its lending practices. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says that a sustained economic recovery may require additional bailouts of financial institutions. However, the business loan portion of banking has become the collateral casualty that threatens the country’s economic recovery.
As a business management consultant experienced in dealing with bankers on behalf of my clients, it is clear to me that business loan criteria are in flux. Even clients with excellent credit, strong assets and positive history are being denied new loans and are incurring decreased credit lines. New financing does not seem to be happening. Does that mean banks are not lending money to small businesses? They say that they a
re, but that assertion is inconsistent with my clients’ experiences.
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Article comments
1 - bliffle
Forty years dealing with bankers taught me that the dumbest people in the business world are bankers.
They do not even know if their banks are solvent at any given time.
The only way they can even maintain a pretense of being other than bankrupt is by accessing the gigantic slush funds that banks maintain around the world.
Lacking any acumen, training, education or accomplishments, bankers do what any incompetent would do: they insert themselves into a process and try to make real businessmen pay tribute as they pass by.
Once a banker gets his blood-sucking proboscis into a successful business they suck every bit of blood money they can out of it, even killing the host that they parasitise.
If anyone expects the bankers to do The Right Thing to help the economy then they are deluded.
It is madness to throw more money to bankers, the most venal and incompetent members of the business community.
But that was just a footnote. I really came here to post these happy news headlines from a popular electronics pub:
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Microsoft to cut 5,000 jobs Mary Jo Foley: On the heels of lower-than-expected second quarter earnings, Microsoft will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs today.
Steve Ballmer: 'We are not immune" to economy
SAP cans SAPPHIRE Europe
Intel restructures manufacturing; 5,000 to 6,000 workers hit
Sony warns of $2.9b loss
Special Report: Recession and the IT economy
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Have a nice day.
2 - Mark Eden
Thanks a lot bliffle...and you too Tommy -- your both rays of sunshine.
Mark
3 - Mark Eden
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4 - Cindy D
Bank of America will give late payers a settlement at 39 cents on the dollar. (They say 40% on the dollar, you can probably do even better that 39% if you negotiate). If you have been having problems with paying your bill at BofA you can settle at that rate now (if you even can or are interested).
I learned this today. The marketing agent for this said two things:
1) BofA needs money and
2) the bailout funds received makes it possible...???
I'm not a banker. I haven't a clue what this means.
I am a business person and to me what it means is they are willing to take a 61% loss in principle to get money right now.
Take advantage of this for those who want to keep your credit. Or whoever would pay anyway.
If you have a problem ask and I will get you a phone number.
Click on send email message (bottom right)
5 - Ruvy
Hmmm...I haven't heard of anybody talking about the movie "It's A Wonderful Life" lately....
Good article. But Tommy, ask an editor to remove the word "are" at the very bottom of page 1 of the article. You meant to remove it when you changed the way you wanted to phrase the sentence but forgot to - and the person who published the article didn't notice it.
Yup! The audacity to hope; hope and change. I hope that by the time Obama is through with y'all (or history is through with him), that you all still have some change....
6 - Christopher Rose
Ruvy, good spot on the redundant "are", which is now fixed. Thanks.
7 - Tommy Mack
For those keeping score, here is an editorial from the NY Times for consideration.
We are edging toward the nationalization of our banking system which will irk Republicans and bank share holders. Their party set up the financial crisis that allows little else as a reasonable choice.
Federal servants, GS-whatever-grade, are paid according to rank. There are no bonuses. Banks are our servants, not the other way around. Alexander Hamilton would agree with me.
Tommy
8 - bliffle
Indeed, banks and bankers are nothing more than tax agencies and tax collectors. They are not an "industry", for they produce no product, whatever they say to the contrary.
The banking function could be performed by a simple government agency. Whatever claim to judgement and discretion that bankers ever had has been carelessly cast to the winds by this generation of poltroons.