Last week, we discussed a nasty little public advertising campaign being waged by a couple of Texas banks that didn't take TARP CPP money against those who did. At the time, I thought that while most customers wouldn't be influenced to switch banks by that particular pitch, and while I'd never advis...

Last month, real estate columnist Steve Brown shot off a nice little rant about how bank regulators were forcing banks to clamp down so hard on real estate lending that they were denying credit to good borrowers as well as bad ones. The Kansas City Business Journal provides further evidence of this ...

Last fall, theology professor R.R. Reno wrote a long blog piece at First Things that defended the federal government's bailout from the attacks of his more ideologically pure brethren on the right. Professor Reno recently came back with a follow up piece this week that concedes that he angered a lot...

I wish I could get as worked up about the page one story in today's Wall Street Journal as many others have done. I simply cannot. The entire process of picking winners and losers in the bank bailout game totally lacks transparency and accountability. Cockroaches always roam in the dark, folks. Want...

To no one's surprise, (certainly not ours), first lien residential mortgage loan cramdowns will soon be coming to a bankruptcy court near you. Although we haven't seen the bill yet, Dick Durbin's office announced today that he, Chuck ("Bank Run") Schumer and Chris ("I Boinked Princess Leia") Dodd, h...

Today's Dallas Morning News contained an article whose headline was less than stunning: "Banks might use bailout funds for acquisitions." Someone needs to notify the News that banks have already used bailout funds for acquisitions. Ask the former National City Bank of Cleveland. PNC got a yummy capi...

Emily Flitter brings us the inspiring story of an average homeowner,Thomas Haberson, who's had enough of the big banks getting all the bailout bucks. He's filed a handwritten complaint against the US Treasury Department in an Arizona court that seeks not only class action status, but $150 billion in...

Although the FDIC denies it, organizers and consultants who are trying to start new banks in certain areas of the country allege that the FDIC has put in place a "de facto ban" on all new bank charters. “It is a de facto ban,� said Stephen Johnson, CEO of Alpharetta-based consultant T. Stephen J...

For decades, there's been a split between those who think that consumers should be free to make informed decisions about credit, good or bad, as long as they have available to them the relevant information to make such informed decisions. Others argue that the average consumer will never have enough...

Last May, we profiled the risk of rogue sociopathic employees who help outsiders steal sensitive data from banks, mortgage lenders, and other businesses. In that story, former employees disclosed passwords that were not changed after the employees left the business.......