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Mr. Lockhart, Old Stories and Shakespeare
Mr. Lockhart, Old Stories and Shakespeare After I read the transcript and viewed the video clip of Mr. Lockhart's remarks on CNBC’s "Squawk Box" in which he said, and I quote: "What we need is...
Naked What?—Cover your Eyes
Naked What?—Cover your Eyes As if bankers and politicians don’t have enough to worry about when it comes to public opinion and financial reform, the Senate has been debating whether or not to...
High Roads and Low Roads
High Roads and Low Roads There is no doubt that passions are running high in regard to the financial reform debate. There are many sides engaged in this generational issue. And all sides hold...
The Devil is in the Details
The Devil is in the Details Congress is working to wrap up the financial regulatory reform bill in the next few weeks. Community bankers know better than anyone how important it is to make sure...
Beware Those Unintended Consequences
Beware Those Unintended Consequences With a financial system as sophisticated, complicated and interconnected as ours, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that there are no easy fixes. We didn’t...
Friday Night Lights Out
Friday Night Lights Out Last Friday night, the lights went out for four “too-small-to-save” banks. They faced the ultimate in resolution authority. I knew the bank presidents of two of the four...
A Central Bank With No Center? A Lesson From the Falcon and the Falconer
A Central Bank With No Center? A Lesson From the Falcon and the Falconer A central bank without a central role in the American banking and financial sector? Crazy, right? Absurd, you say? Not so...
The Elephant in the Room
The Elephant in the Room “When elephants stampede; it is the grass that gets trampled.” Thai Army proverb...
The Voices of Main Street
The Voices of Main Street “Only connect,” the novelist E.M. Forster urged people, almost a century ago. And nowhere are connections more important than here in Washington. Thanks to social media...
The Status Quo—Great for Wall Street, Fatal to Main Street
The Status Quo—Great for Wall Street, Fatal to Main Street Today two forces are facing off over financial reform—those who want real reform of Wall Street's greed and damaging practices and those...
Singing Out of the Wall Street Hymnal
Singing Out of the Wall Street Hymnal Just 20 banks of 8,000 now control over three quarters of our nation's assets and over 60 percent of its deposits. Community banks are at a 0.40 to 0.60...
Bailouts, big lies and moral bankruptcy
Bailouts, big lies and moral bankruptcy Evidently we’re not the only ones who are growing dizzy from all the spinning Wall Street is doing as it desperately tries to trick the American public into...
Focused
Focused Focus! The singular mission of ICBA is to enhance and protect the community bank charter—period. Never was the benefit of that focus more apparent than last Thursday when the Senate voted...
Calm Before the Storm
Calm Before the Storm Lawmakers are often a raucous bunch when they’re together, but Capitol Hill remains unusually quiet after the Labor Day holiday. Most members of Congress are still back in...
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine If you want to know who and what really triggered the financial chaos and calamity through which we all have just lived, a must read is The Big Short by...
FDIC Long-Term Plan Offers Short-Term Relief
FDIC Long-Term Plan Offers Short-Term Relief At a time when good news is hard to come by in the financial services industry, or anywhere for that matter, the FDIC’s recently proposed Deposit...
ICBA Convention on Pace for Banner Year
ICBA Convention on Pace for Banner Year When I was still running my community bank in Missouri, it was always important to me to find a way to get away for a week in March to attend ICBA’s National...
Community Bankers Take to the Hill
Community Bankers Take to the Hill It’s been a great week in Washington. While there is still a long row to hoe on a number of issues facing community banks, we made great progress this week as...
Taking Responsibility and Standing Tall
Taking Responsibility and Standing Tall Last week, as the great financial reform debate went into extra innings, temperatures were rising and everyone was tense and tired. When the conference...
Real Facts, and Beer
Real Facts, and Beer Lots of Washington, D.C., "pundits" and some association executives are sending out messages and summaries opining on the Dodd/Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection...