.
Absorb that for a moment.
The bank I used to use, Cal- National Bank was consumed yesterday by U.S. Bank.
The lady there who managed the place used to be very personal and hands on. She would call me when it was getting close to overdraft time and ask me to make a deposit. I ended up leaving because of the mess ( tax and family ) left when my partner and step father passed away and I needed a new account. I moved all my checking to U.S. Banks where I had always had an account that I used to accept credit cards. I noticed the change right away; I was getting dinged for every thing, there was no personal relationship and the feeling was that I was being nickled and dimed.
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/fai … ional.html
So, the point so far is; the government has assisted with tax codes the outsourcing of business with Mexico being just about the largest winner in this.
The government mandated that banks like Cal-National loan money to undocumented minorities.
Colleges report a 23% percent drop in studies that might lead to the " high tech jobs of the future. "
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2188447/posts
While government leaders were well-intentioned in setting up the Troubled Asset Relief Program, it’s a “lousy program,” U.S. Bancorp CEO Richard Davis said at a business leaders forum Tuesday.
U.S. Bank was told, not asked, to participate in the program, which is a Darwinian attempt to “synthesize” weaker banks into stronger banks through consolidation, Davis said at the forum, held at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in Minneapolis. U.S. Bank (NYSE: USB) sold $6.6 billion in preferred stock with warrants to the U.S. Treasury in November through its capital purchase program.
“There’s no A, R or P in TARP,” Davis said, adding that “troubled” is the only word in the phrase that’s accurate. “The ‘asset relief program’ has yet to occur.”
The problems with the U.S. Treasury Department’s program are that its goals and rules have changed since its inception last fall, it’s poorly defined and it’s caused collateral damage to healthy banks.
Davis said he would be “darned” if Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank would suffer collateral damage from the government’s “sloppy attempt at nationalizing the [banking] industry.”
I am open to explanation of what exactly is going on here. I don't see anything Darwinian about it. I think we are getting historically screwed.
