Happened to hear in passing on the Sunday morning news that five banks had failed since the beginning of the year... so I went looking this early Monday morning to see what I could find. Scarce news in the scheme of Internet plethora of everything minuscule. Found the news about the five, then saw another article that mentioned that there were seven this year, then right before I gave it up saw another article about there being nine (9) that have closed already this year. This is getting scarier and scarier.
I decided to write a blog about the subject of bank failures, Obama's too big to fail talk, the proposed regulating of banks, etc. so I went a-scouring for even more info on the topics. I'm sharing a few, but it's time to go walk on the treadmill, my trade-off for sitting in front of the computer or sitting in the studio working on my pottery. Neither task does anything for my bottom-line (and I tain't talkin' money).
Here's one in the Copenhagen Post that might spark some interest. Where we're heading in Obamaland, a world of Obama-types:
Israeli companies excluded from bank’s investments
Danske Bank adds two firms to a list of companies in which it won’t invest due to questionable ethics
Africa Israel Investments and Elbit Systems have been added to Danske Bank’s list of companies that fail to adhere to its Socially Responsible Investment policy.
The bank’s SRI policy obliges it to examine the willingness of potential investments to follow international conventions in human rights and employment standards among others.
http://www.cphpost.dk/business/119-business/48048-israeli-companies-excluded-from-banks-investments.html
Fla. bank fifth to fail in 2010 - all of 2 paragraphs! http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_14251158?source=rss
Fox did much better: Premier American Bank Of Miami Fifth Bank To Fail In 2010
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/finance/premier-american-bank-miami-fifth-bank-fail/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxbusiness%2Flatest+%28Text+-+Latest+News%29&utm_content=Yahoo+Search+Results
(7th bank) Regulators take over troubled Charter Bank
The six branches of Charter Bank are expected to re-open Monday after the Santa Fe bank was taken over this weekend by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The Office of Thrift Supervision on Friday evening shut down the bank, which in addition to two Santa Fe offices also has three branches in Albuquerque and one in Rio Rancho. Charter has been known for its support of affordable housing but has been under scrutiny for apparent problems with its commercial loans.
...Charter Bank is the seventh FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in New Mexico.
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Regulators-take-over-troubled-Charter-Bank
(9th bank) Columbia River Bank closed by regulators
Oregon state banking regulators shuttered Columbia River Bank late Friday as bad real estate construction loans doomed the 21-office bank in Oregon and Washington that includes branches in Yakima and Sunnyside
The Yakima branch at 10 N. Fifth Ave. and the Sunnyside outlet at 2640 Yakima Valley Highway will reopen Monday under the banner of Columbia State Bank, a Tacoma-based banking concern with 50 offices in Washington and Oregon.
Columbia River Bank is the ninth FDIC-insured bank to fail in the nation this year and the first in Oregon.
http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2010/01/23/01-24-10-columbia-river-drowns-dl
Davos battleground for bank reform
After the Democrats' electoral defeat in Massachusetts last week, President Barack Obama beefed up both the substance of financial reform and the rhetoric designed to sell his policies, but stopped short of a change of personnel.
This week the substance will come under threat, the rhetoric remains unproven and the two top US economic officials face threats to their jobs that are outside the president's control.
At the World Economic Forum session which starts on Wednesday at Davos, the world's largest banks plan to lobby against an aggressive implementation of the Obama plan that would force groups to choose between taking insured deposits and running their own trading operations.
In particular, some senior financiers will argue that the banks' proprietary activity was not a key source of the recent credit crisis - and thus should not be aggressively targeted.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/01/24/banks.lobby.obama.ft/index.html?section=cnn_latest
Obama Proposals Prevent Any One Bank from Becoming Too Big to Fail
The Washington-Beijing Axis again hammered New York and London overnight. U.S. stocks fell two percent after suffering a surprise attack from the regulatory flank by President Obama. The Obama proposals are designed to prevent any one bank from becoming "too big to fail." They aim to achieve this - in ways not pleasing to the investment banking industry - by cracking down on proprietary trading and bank sponsorship of hedge funds.
http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/obama-proposals-prevent-any-one-bank-from-becoming-too-big/2010/01/22/
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