Should Geithner Be Fired?

This morning Good Morning America ran a short piece on how some in Congress would like to fire Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. The GMA clip said a couple of Republicans and one Democrat are leading the charge. Apparently, Geithner testified earlier this week on the state of the economy and it turned into a personal attack. Geithner ended up defending his actions to reduce the impact of the economic crisis and tried to remind the Congressmen that the Obama administration was handed this mess and has been trying to clean it up ever since; that the current administration did not cause this problem. He also tried to explain that all economic indicators except unemployment are showing improvement.

I don't think he should be fired. Are there some ulterior motives for decisions that have been made -- probably. But that's the nature of politics. Who doesn't have ulterior motives in D.C.? For the most part, I think he's doing what he thinks can best pull the economy back up. After all, no one's ulterior motives are served with the economy on the brink of collapse.

A "Living Will" for A Bank

An article in the American Banker on Nov. 9 discussed the idea of systemically important companies having to create their own advance resolution plans. These companies would have to submit regular wind-down plans to the government and if a company ever was deemed insolvent the government would have a blueprint of how to dismantle it. Makes sense to me. They do the legwork for regulators so the tax payers don't have fit the bill for figuring it out. The only question is whether the government (and taxpayers) can trust these companies to come up with practical, cost efficient plans that doesn't just benefit the shareholders. I'm not so sure I'd trust them to do that without some help from an independent third party!

LOL!

Check out the website http://www.freemaninstitute.com/hall_of_shame.htm. It explains why bank robbers tend to be unsuccessful and provides tips. For example, the website suggests criminals pick the right bank. "Clark advises that you don't follow the lead of the fellow in Anaheim, Calif., who tried to hold up a bank that was no longer in business and had no money," the website says. "On the other hand, you don't want to be too familiar with the bank. A California robber ran into his mother while making his getaway. She turned him in."

Too funny!

Dennis Moore Interview

I interviewed Representative Dennis Moore, D-KS, yesterday about the Consumer Financial Protection Agency and the amendment he submitted to keep institutions under $10 billion from being directly regulated by the CFPA. Seemed like a nice guy. He had some interesting things to say about preemption and too big to fail. Look for my article on these topics in the December issue of BankNews to read what he had to say.

Not a Recession, but a Man-cession?

In the October issue of The Regional Economist magazine published by the St. Louis Fed, there was an article about how this recession is hitting men harder than women. It said that "between the fourth quarter of 2007, when the current recession began, and the first quarter of 2009, men bore 78 percent of the job losses. Over the same period, the unemployment rate for men rose from 4.9 percent to 8.9 percent, while the rate for women rose by only half as much, from 4.7 percent to 7.2 percent." The article goes on to say that this gap in unemployment for the genders has no precedent during the post-war period. Therefore, some are calling this a man-cession, not a recession. Wonder why that is?

Protesters at ABA Convention

The American Bankers Association's annual convention was held Oct. 25-28 in Chicago and was the site of a three-day demonstration against foreclosures and taxpayer bailouts for banks. The event was organized by union and community organizations with one article citing more than 5,000 protesters in attendance. According to an article at PR Newswire, the ABA and the six top banks have spent $35 million fighting financial reforms after accepting $17.8 trillion in taxpayer bailouts and backstops.

http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/latest.jsp;jsessionid=E2C28EE41FAA53912E057ADF2C983F2E.tomcat1?resourceid=4098835&access=EH

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Thousands_protest_bailout_bonuses_a_10272009.html

Not sure what to think about this. I guess my initial reaction is "just another reason community banks need to differentiate themselves from the big banks." Then I read this article and even more interesting to me -- the comments people posted below the article.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/10/american-bankers-association-protest-michigan-avenue-chicago-showdown.html

It's interesting to read the various arguments and rebuttals. It gives you a real sense of what Americans are thinking and how well informed or misinformed they truly are.