If you have something to say...
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If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
Depending on whom you ask, the housing crisis is over, still going on, or entering a new and far more sinister phase.
The U.S. banking industry is entering a particularly volatile period in our nation's economic history that is rapidly reshaping the industry, the demographics of financial services providers, and the way that financial products and services are delivered and consumed.
The Small Business Administration's loan incentive program worked brilliantly, and it will work again. Washington should act -- and act now -- to provide another $2 billion to help small businesses, their workers and the taxpayers.
The Dark Age of Banking reaches its twelfth anniversary today, November 4. History will no doubt judge the Financial Modernization Act, repealing Glass-Steagall, as the beginning of the dark, modern banking era.
Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously found the death penalty harsh and random because different states applied different rules at various times when deciding whom they would execute. In a way, the foreclosure crisis is similarly harsh and random.
Note to media: Please stop referring to Eliot Spitzer as the Sheriff of Wall Street. The title certainly doesn't fit now, and arguably didn't fit a decade ago when he took Wall Street to task for putting out conflicted research on stocks.
The torrential pace of bank failures in 2009 and 2010 has eased, but in the first three quarters of 2011 the downpour has still been enough to give the banking system a pretty good soaking.
Two good, anecdotal illustrations occurred recently of the power that our tools of publicness give to us, the public.
While whacking our parents and grandparents with a big cut in Social Security benefits apparently draws bipartisan support, the supercommittee will not even score a plan to tax Wall Street financial speculation.
As consumers of financial services products, start to demand that your bank, investment advisor and brokerage join this movement. If they aren't willing to publicly declare what you deserve, you deserve a better company.
The simple notion that China might be part of that new fund is sending waves throughout Europe. Does Europe need the IMF and China to resolve a $500 billion problem?
Could conditions for interest rates on savings accounts get any worse today than they were in the 1930s? If you factor in both interest rates and inflation, they already are.
At a time when the free checking account is practically an endangered species, having special access to free checking is a valuable benefit.
As public anger at Wall Street greed boils over in the form of protests spreading across the nation, the Federal Reserve Board is poised to allow creation of yet another "too big to fail" bank.
Stop the revolution, I want to get off! Revolution is nigh and this time it's not the product of the misguided anger of the Tea Party! This one is '...
