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 ...

A recent action that received little coverage (other than by BankThink) was the request by Consumers Union that The Treasury Department order the OCC to rescind its preemption regulation. Consumers Union is trying to win the case of Cuomo v. The Clearing House Association, LLC through the back door....

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...

Reader Gregg Somerville, a stockbroker, sent me a link to his "rapumentary" ripping Hank Paulson. It may be a few months behind the curve at this point, but it remains hilarious. The line about Richard Fuld being the only guy who ever lost calling Paulson's bluff is a classic. I mean, we have to lau...

Yesterday's The Wall Street Journal documented the most detailed evidence to date that many community banks who don't need the government's TARP money are backing away from participating in the Capital Purchase Program, primarily because their "fear of the unknown" is being tipped into near paranoia...

The American Banker had an interesting article the other day (paid subscription required) about the private investors who the FDIC and other federal bank regulators are attempting to entice into making investments in banks and thrifts in need of cold, hard capital. According to a number of experts c...

A short article from Friday's St. Louis Business Journal crams a lot of viewpoints. The article deals with the TARP CPP program, and complains that only four St. Louis banks have received investments from the Treasury under the program. The article's author further complains that even though 7,000 o...

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...

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...