December 2009
21 posts
Customers as grapes
Following my on-air conversation with Marketplace’s Bob Moon, I’ve been talking a lot to people about banking relationships. A lot of people think this is a funny concept these days: they like the anonymity of the ATM and the convenience of online banking, and they’re quite happy to deal with machines rather than with people for the most part.
Fair enough. The big banks like B...
Now he calls me....
I got a call today, from Roy Almeda, a regional manager at OneWest Bank. As you may know by now, OneWest became my bank on Friday, when it bought First Federal Bank of California.
Roy was very polite and very helpful. He told me some of the top people at OneWest heard me talking on the radio with Marketplace host Bob Moon yesterday. I told Bob that I was upset, firstly about my account being...
Busted
My bank went belly up over the weekend.
On Friday, December 18, 2009, First Federal Bank of California, a Federal Savings Bank (First Federal Bank of California), Santa Monica, CA was closed by the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver…All deposit accounts have been transferred to OneWest Bank,...
Bernanke's just a normal guy
He recently refinanced his house - got a rate right around 5%, which is pretty sweet. Plus he just got a new wallet.
“….my old one was too raggedy, so I’m glad I got a new one.”
And a glimpse inside that wallet reveals some interesting details. Big Ben has an Amex card - expensive annual fees, but you can get some great loyalty deals there. He also has a debit card, and a...
Safe bet
The Fed meets today and tomorrow. What can we expect? As Kai Ryssdal said at this morning’s meeting, “I’d bet my kids that he doesn’t raise rates.”
His family will be pleased to hear he didn’t actually make the bet, but even if he had, it’s about the safest wager I can imagine anyone making. Why would the Fed raise rates now?
Now, for those of you whose...
WatchInterest rates
Confused about the theory of how interest rates can be a tool to warm up or cool down the economy? Here’s a handy Whiteboard.
“This is an example of one of those indicators that usually makes people’s eyes...”
– Amy Scott, Marketplace’s NY bureau chief, pitching a story about rising business inventories today
“It really helps people, it’s useful.”
– Paul Volcker, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, on the ATM
The last big thing
Reading in Seeking Alpha today that former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker thinks that the last really useful innovation by the financial services industry was the creation of the ATM!
World Cup draw
The USA is in Group C for its World Cup matches. Also in the Group: Algeria Slovenia and England.
The groups in full
Group A South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay,France Group B Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece Group C England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia Group D Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana Group E Holland, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon Group F Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia Group G Brazil,...
Pelosi trading tax scare!
Probably not as scary as it sounds.
Reuters reports Pelosi saying a tax on stock and other financial transactions has a great deal of merit and would help raise needed revenue.
But there are a number of caveats here. For one thing, Reuters notes,
…support is tepid on a key tax-writing committee, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said he opposes it.
For another, Pelosi...
“Few people make such big mistakes in professions that they love and then get the...”
– Jayson Blair, to a journalism class at the University of Albany. (via Albany Times Union)
Felix the mystery cat
For some reason my RSS feed has been flooded with old posts by Felix Salmon, including one about Felix leaving Portfolio. Which he did, back in March. It feels a bit weird, like a kind of eulogy. I hope he hasn’t lost everything at poker and taken a header off the Brooklyn Bridge. Or drowned in a lake of Petrus.
Actually, from what I gather, he might consider that a good way to go.
Still Seething
The debate about the merits of levying a fee on traders has lit up the blogosphere. There’s a good back and forth going on over on Scott Jagow’s blog at Marketplace. The gist of the idea is that revenues from the tax would go toward deficit reduction and job creation on Main Street.
It’s a pretty controversial topic. Lawmakers point out the UK has a levy on trades, but Wall...
“There’s no pavement fairy that’s going to help.”
– Tim Word, vice president of Dean Word Co., a heavy-construction company in New Braunfels, Texas. Quoted in a WSJ story today about infrastructure jobs running out as stimulus-funded projects wind down.