-
Bank Ownership Changes Irk Columnist
Posted on June 13th, 2010 No comments“We have changed banks again for the fourth time in not-too-many years. It is not due to lack of good service or competitive offerings. It is due to the seemingly constant shuffle of owners,” writes columnist Al Campbell in Germantown NOW.
-
Opinion: Financial Reform Bill is a Good Start
Posted on June 11th, 2010 No commentsOverall, the U.S. Senate’s “Restoring American Financial Stability” reform bill is a start in the right direction, writes Bob Chernow, a Milwaukee-area futurist who has worked in the financial industry for more than 40 years, in the Milwaukee Small Business Times.
-
Opinion: Feingold Right to Oppose Reform Bill
Posted on May 23rd, 2010 No commentsWisconsin’s U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold was right to vote against the financial reform bill in Congress, writes Capital Times editor John Nichols. “Feingold wanted real reform. And the American people should recognize that they are not getting it in the legislation the Senate passed,” he wrote in an opinion piece.
-
Opinion: Re-Regulate Wall Street
Posted on May 9th, 2010 No comments“The [financial reform] legislation moving through Congress will prevent future bailouts by eliminating the idea that some financial institutions can become too big to fail. It establishes a middle ground between bankruptcy and bailout with an orderly liquidation process, in case Wall Street firms once again run themselves into the extreme distress that forced taxpayers to save them in 2008,” writes Viterbo University Professor Keith Knutson in the La Crosse Tribune.
-
Column: Consider State-Owned Bank
Posted on April 25th, 2010 No commentsFour states have initiated bills for state-owned banks, and candidates in seven states have now proposed them. A state-owned bank in Wisconsin “could invest in education, student loans, and other worthwhile investments that would further economic development in the state,” writes Bob Menamin of FightingBob.com in an opinion column for the Wisconsin State Journal.
-
Editorial: ‘Light at End of TARP Tunnel’
Posted on April 23rd, 2010 No commentsThe $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program may end up costing the nation around $89 million, according to the U.S. Treasury, a figure that does not include the billions to help Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “It’s still big money, but compared with what could have happened when credit markets seized at the end of 2008, it was money well spent,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote in an editorial.
-
Editorial: Payday Loan Bill Eliminates Options
Posted on February 20th, 2010 No commentsProposed Wisconsin legislation that would cap payday loan interest rates and limit loan amounts “will not eliminate the financial need that still exists,” the Milwaukee Courier editor writes in an online editorial. “Instead of eliminating options, legislators should find a way to open up the door for more options. If the banks are threatened by this, then begin offering something better.”
-
Column: Help Small Biz, Banks By Helping SBA
Posted on February 19th, 2010 No comments“We should offer smaller banks the additional capital they need to expand their small business lending,” writes Karen Mills, administrator of the Small Business Administration, in a Green Bay Press-Gazette guest column, detailing ways that SBA programs could stimulate the economy.
-
Letter: Use TARP Funds as Intended
Posted on February 6th, 2010 No comments“President Obama has proposed that the government take $30 billion in repayments from the Toxic Asset Relief Program and distribute it to banks for small business loans. While there may be a legitimate need, this would be contrary to the law as written,” reads a letter to the editor in the Wausau Daily Herald.
-
Editorial: Impose Fees on Big Banks
Posted on January 28th, 2010 No commentsPresident Obama’s proposed Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee, which would tax about 50 of the nation’s biggest banks $9 billion a year over a decade, is “sound economic policy, because it will discourage bad behavior by those who were guilty of atrocious judgment in the years leading up to the collapse of the credit system,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes in an editiorial.