Fat Lady hasn’t belted out her tune yet!

Kanook – October – 2009

If you’ve been waiting for Kathryn Elizabeth “Kate” Smith to belt out her
victory winning tune, and finally realized it ain’t to be until we’ve really conquered
this financial mess we’re in, join the crowd.
Today it is being bantered about that few more financial houses are slipping
beneath the waves, where twenty-six more houses have on their books over 20% of
their loans in default, this according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC), as belts are being tightened and more bankers are leaping from the tops of
their cars onto parking lots screaming at the top of their now puny little voices, “it
don’t matter”, the public understands.
Executives in the know are also saying that the “recovery” may be a bit
impeded in Florida, Illinois and seven other states (WA and Oregon included), even
though it is believed ‘regulators’ may force the houses on the list to close, the
states mentioned above are the most vulnerable of a larger group of lenders whose
failures could cost you and me approximately $100 billion, billion not million!
Big shots across the land are calling for the failure of these so-called ‘Zombie
Banks’, stating with self-assurance (after they received their bailout money), that
neither the banking industry nor the economy benefits from keeping these banks
open! Ninety-five banking houses failed this year, this sucking out the funds from
the FDIC fund, the FDIC made a recommendation on Tuesday (the 29 th – Sept) that
financial firms who received the windfall bailout funds repay three-years of
premiums, giving the FDIC $45 billion in reserves.
Bankers aboard their yachts in the Caribbean fell off their deck chairs, spilling
their drinks, laughing so hard they were crying…”what is this, the American public
needs our assistance, who in the hell do they think they are? Why don’t they go out
there and earn their way like we did?” The un-named source, who reported the
conversations, was later found in an end-of-life situation in a bar in Puerto Rico.
The last time the number of banks held loan defaults this high was in 1991,
near the end of the savings-and-loan crisis, where they a number of executive went
to jail, which only goes to show you the banks have a much more powerful lobby
than the savings-and-loan crowd. The banks sliding down the economic scale run
the risk of civil penalties, slap on the hand and their gas cards taken away, along
with a demand that they improve their management and search for more capital,
what a penalty. The demand for improved management is laughable, albeit like
closing the door after the money took a walk, it is still a chuckling affair when the
pool of available managers are cut from the same cloth as the old ones, slip and
greed, Ivy leaguers from the schools of financial manipulation and “where’s my
cut”, what the hay it might work?
In February the FDIC ordered one bank in Oak Park, Illinois (about 30 miles
from Chicago) to stop and I quote, “operating with management whose policies and
practices are detrimental to the bank and jeopardize the safety of its deposits,” Al
Capone’s second cousin pulled all his funds from the bank immediately,
unfortunately our calls to him were unanswered, as to why he reacted so drastically
and with forethought. Down the street another financial house has been noted from
a year ago to have an increase of 25% of bad loans, this from 1% the same time
last year. The banks comment was, “We stop and think of all the rich farmland that
has been developed into sub-divisions during the boom years, it makes you wonder
what we’ve been doing!” Boy, I hear that!
With banks spread across the mid-west and the west (Oregon and western
Washington have 51 branches) another bank has a total of $764.6 million in bad
loans, with 43% of them in construction and development – turning beer hop fields
into multi-million dollar sub-divisions for sale to the workers who work the fields that
are no-longer there. Makes sense to me, you?
Not to worry though, this bank is in the process of being acquired by SP
Acquisition Holding Inc, which is controlled by Steel Partners LLC, - Hedge Fund)
based in New York, SPAH has a shady reputation whereas one complaint is their
CEO (Warren Lichtenstein, good American family), at best, has been sued left and
right, has kids scattered across three continents and his latest was being arrested
for drunk driving in Aspen, a real slick operator whose company has been in trouble
with the SEC since last year and is due to appear before the SEC – you would think
that a bank, no matter how much trouble it is in would want this guy and his boys
walking around and in their books?
Well my friends all mentioned is just the tip of the so-named Ice Berg, riding
deep beneath the waves is a run of corruption and greed that hasn’t been seen or
experienced in this country of ours since after the Civil War and all those
carpetbaggers lugged their bags south and went to work, at least they didn’t have
the advantage of instant communications otherwise we’d still be crawling out from
under that mess.

Hiding behind this economic collapse of these banks in an un-employment

rate of 17%, this counting the workers who have given up looking for jobs, and the
average work week at 33-hours with weekly wages at $616.00. Doesn’t appear to
me that his recession is over! All told over 15 million workers are on the street, or
at least 4.9% of every man, woman and children in this land. I don’t know why we
just don’t breakdown and call this what it really is a “depression”, when
unemployment was noted as being 14%. Guess what we’re 3 points over that
today!