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Sheila says goodbye to the ABA
I have gone both ways with Sheila Bair. I have criticized some of what she has done and applauded others. She gave a speech
to the America Bankers Association today. She summed things up pretty
well. Early on in the presentation she made this significant remark:
This may be my last opportunity to speak with you before the end of my term in June.
Read this to mean that she is out. This is a big job that
requires a transition period. A new FDIC head has to be named soon.
Given the politics of this position and the daggers being bandied about
in D.C. I think this has to come by 4/30. Just six weeks away. Should be interesting.
Given that this was her last opportunity to address all the big bankers
in one room it was a good time for Sheila to beat up on the audience:
I would like to propose to you a radical-sounding notion. And it is that increasing the size and profitability of the financial services industry is not – and should not be – the main goal of our national economic policy.
Apparently this woke the audience up. Guys were choking on their bagels. This must have also gotten the coffee cups rattling:
My
reading of recent polling data on how the public views banks also
speaks to the need for a different approach from your industry. In
April 2010, a Pew Research poll found that just 22 percent of respondents rated banks and other financial institutions as having “a positive effect on the way things are going in this country.”
This was lower than the ratings they gave to Congress, the federal government, big business, labor unions, and the entertainment industry.
She warned the banks:
What is important for you to recognize is that this type of reputation risk will eventually have implications for your bottom line and the confidence of your investors and customers.
All this is old news to Zero Hedge readers. But it's a pretty big deal when the outgoing head of the FDIC says it.
Notes:
(I) We have not seen the last of Ms. Bair. I don’t think she is a
presidential candidate, but she would make a good VP. Her name is on
this list. She might be our next Treasury Secretary. I’m "ABT" (anyone
but Tim). She could also run the Fed. Bernanke has erred with QE2. He
will take heat for the inflation that is brewing. It just might be that
he goes back to Princeton in a year. Her name is definitely on that list.
(II) I finally got around to dumping my accounts with the big banks. I
am now with a Community Bank. They do everything the big slobs do. They
don’t have branches on every corner. Who cares? Community Banks are now lending. The big guys are not. Their deposit rates are better. Plus you get to say “screw you” to a Morg, a Citi or a BoA.
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Bruce- I saw this press release today too and thought it was great. However, what leader gets elected without banking money? How does she get into said place of power?
Despite these questions, I am hopeful too. (As is Chris Whalen I believe...)
"increasing the size and profitability of the financial services industry is not – and should not be – the main goal of our national economic policy."
In this she disagrees with the President at least 44 members of the Senate and over 170 members of the house. When Dick Durbin says "The bank own the place" he is not being humorous. They will continue until the disaster happens and then the only question is will there be retribution? For 2008 there was none. Obviously.
"Apparently this woke the audience up. Guys were choking on their bagels."
Is Mr. Krasting being anti-semetic with this statement?
No, if he'd said, "Those motherfucking kike shylocks were choking on their bagels", then you might've been on to something.
I'll change it. "Guys choked on their egg and bacon sandwiches when they heard this..."
Better?
post of da week! lmao
You're 40!!! Damn it!!!
You must be one of those poor sniveling insecure Jews who thinks the gentile sitting next to you is anti-Semetic because he didn't tie his shoes into a Star of David knot.
Pathetic. Go join the Dan Snyder "WaaaWaaaBoooHooo!! WaaaWaaaBoooHooo!! You picked on me cause I'm a Jew" club. The crying goes on all day there 24/7/365. You can sign up at this link: http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/58304/ajc-dismisses-snyder-charge-of-ant...
Anti-semitic?
Tell us again the brand of what yo smokin'? I'd like some too BTW...looks like it's strong stuff.
I mean...dude! If Bruce has written "croissants" instead of "bagels", would you call him Anti-French?
Get a life!!
NorthenSoul,
You are conditioned so well it is funny.
It was about choking/emetic so he was against emesis.
I know, I know ... explaining jokes!
Just I think, the dude deserves an apology.
Hello, Hello? Is this thing on?
the calming sound of crickets...... :-)
+1 shekel
I just wonder who the 22% are.
Paid shills, banking industry lobbyists, paid politicians, and of course, bankers themselves. lol
possibly: yacht and/or super luxury car (think Bugatti) companies, Tiffany's, Hermes, Jumbo Mortgage brokers, Le Cirque....
That's really about the only real protest we get: don't borrow (I haven't had any debt, even for a house or car, in 9 years now), don't spend (eschew everything but essentials; for everything else barter, pay cash when you have to, don't use plastic) and cut off the TBTF's oxygen. Every dollar you remove from them backs $12 in lending.
No matter how much money he wills into existence, or how hard he pushes this vast piece of social behavioral engineering, he can't make you borrow and he can't make you spend.
Richard W. Fisher for Fed Chairman.
Fischer and every other Federal Reserve System associated puke are only there to give carefully scripted appearances of debate and even-handed discourse.
Let anything truly relevant that threatens the banking hedgemony's profit margins cross the table and they close ranks like the scales on a crocodile's belly.
End the FED. Period.
Uh, no. FAIL.
We don't need a Fed chairman. We don't need a Fed! Think about it: Why should a handful of people get to determine the value of the currency in which 300 million people get paid, transact, and keep their life savings?
We don't need Sheila to run the Fed, unless that means "run the Fed into the ground, switch off the lights and lock the doors. For good."
A simple currency board could handle the task of managing the money supply. As for the Fed's triple mandate of wrecking the dollar, distorting asset prices all over the map and promoting unemployment in a context of insane price volatility, a chimp at a dart board would do a better job.
Local and community banks (and credit unions, and "net" banks) exceed the big banks in services, IMO.
The lack of many branches/ATMs is not usually a problem... they know and compensate for this. For instance, many (most?) of them reimburse your ATM fees for other-bank ATMs.
Some of them also do digital check depositing (such as USAA).
I actually feel that the big behemoth banks have a negative level of service -- in other words, basic operations you depend on that should work do not work. Wells/Wachovia is a huge offender in this area, as they have made a mess of their labyrinthine systems in the merger. BofA is similar.
There is some cool stuff out there. For instance, ING Direct now has a checking account with no overdraft fees. It lets you overdraft up to $1000 and charges you a fair rate of interest (as a daily periodic rate) on the amount overdrafted.
that 22% was only because of the credit unions and community banks was included in the poll
Great point! My credit union is about the only (large?) institution that I endorse. Services are top notch: their bill pay will even mail (read "physical mail") bills for me, they pay the mailing! This is why I do ALL my banking and financial stuff with them: only exception was on a rural property purchase, they weren't too hip on that (markets were really anal at the time); I did, however, go through another non-profit for the mortgage though. Haven't done business with any large banks in decades. Oh, and I've never had a SINGLE credit card! Yes, it CAN be done, you can escape the big banks!
You've gone both ways?
Sheila goes both ways!
http://www.wcvarones.com/2009/03/lesbotism-at-fdic.html
You mean to say that that this new JP Morgan Chase advert isn't entirely honest?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgcA8erFCP4
Earlier this week I tried to watch some tv. Within the first 10 minutes or so I saw that add… it disgusted me… went back to the computer…
"Chase is now testing fees of $5 and $4 in Illinois and Texas, respectively, for noncustomer withdrawals."
They just don't get it. They really don't.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703566504576202792887598636.html
If they say it, it must be true...NOT!!!
When your leadership starts with one of the biggest scumbags on the planet then you know what the real corporate culture of JPM is, despite words to the contrary. If people were smart enough to look past the words for the deeds, they would see this criminal outfit for what it is.