So if Bank of Clark County was so well run, why did it fail?
“The bank was heavily involved in the development of the community,” (President of the Columbia River Economic Development Council Bart) Phillips said. “The recession hits, and there are casualties. And this is one of the very unfortunate casualties.”
As the article notes, a lot of Vancouver’s top citizens seem to really like the people who ran Bank of Clark County, which is fine. There’s no reason to think they weren’t good at the business of banking itself.
Plus they love puppies, which is very sweet and utterly beside the point. I get that nobody wants to kick any individuals when they are down, but talk about circling the wagons. Nobody even touches on any of the core financial issues.
There’s almost a sense in the article that the economic calamity now striking us is some vague, mysterious outside force like a natural disaster, rather than the highly predictable outcome of neglect by federal regulators in the financial sector combined with pro-sprawl policies locally. Maybe being too heavily exposed to construction and speculative real estate was considered acceptable best bank practice for the last decade, but it sure in the hell can’t be acceptable going forward if we want to avoid a repeat of this mess.
Easy credit allowed for building booms that led to unsustainable sprawl. People have been trying to point out for a very long time in Clark County that we can’t afford sprawl, either environmentally or economically, but nobody ever listens to the DFH. When your economy is based on growth never stopping, when it stops (as it inevitably must) you are in the deep end of the pool with no water wings.
That’s where we are now. Whether it winds up being a teachable moment for at least some of the bidness guys and gals remains to be seen. The irony is that the local BIAW has the county commission locked up for the next four years, and appears to be taking aim at the Vancouver City Council. So they may actually be able to continue their assault on environmental regulations, but with few people buying much of anything, it starts to look like a Pyrrhic victory.
In his blog yesteday, Paul Krugman suggested that if nothing else works on the economy we might try sacrificing a few bankers, central bankers, investment bankers, whatever. Works for me. I suppose Bank of Clark County bankers would come under the “whatever” category.
Paul Krugman is a homosexual dwarf. No need to listen to anything it has to say.
I wonder if this bank was involved in financing the speculators who carved up a pristine hillside above Merwin Lake in Clark County, hauled in thousands of tons of rocks to build pads to put houses on, and then tried to sell the lots for $600,000 each. As far as I know, not a single lot was sold. I heard someone is going to suck up about $20 million on that failed venture.
Having been a business owner myself, I won’t risk my hard-earned money on a business venture unless I know a market exists, know who the customers are, and have solid evidence they’ll buy my product. I don’t do anything on spec with my own money.
I’m the same way with stocks; I never bought a single dot.com stock. I only buy stocks of going concerns with established markets, mostly companies in basic industries that sell to other businesses.
It’s a lot easier to make rash business decisions when you’re doing it with other people’s money. That’s why bankers need tough regulators looking over their shoulders when they vet developers’ projects. If I were a banker, I would never accept the development itself as sufficient collateral — that’s not enough. I would also want the developer to sign over equipment, land, commercial buildings, whatever else he’s got — so that if the project doesn’t pay, he’ll go completely broke before my bank loses a dime. That’s how it ought to be done when you’re lending money that belongs to depositors or shareholders.
@2 Are you referring to Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winner? His fingernail clippings know 100,000 times more about economics than you do! Intellectually, compared to him, you’re nothing but a glob of primordial slime. Oh, and his wife is laughing at your homosexual theory.
We need better quality trolls on this blog.
Pssst, John. Stop scratching your head. I’ll explain to you why sprawl is happening.
In the year 1900 there were 1.6 billion people on earth. There are now 6.7 billion people on earth.
Wanna control sprawl? Stop population growth.
Anyone else find John’s thesis silly about sprawl causing his local bank to fail? I did. Besides, he didn’t prove the connection. I need facts, boy.
5 – The quality trolls are figuring out how to survive in a world of largely their own making. One would hope that maybe while they’re struggling they might slap themselves on the head and conclude that yeah, they really did fuck themselves over by believing that right wing crap.
Just the bottom of the barrel true believers left here at HA.org. They’re the worst of the worst.
My sources in the FDIC tell me the BOCC will reopen Tuesday as the Umpqua Bank.
@5 @7
I admit I think I’m a lousy troll on this blog. How do I know? Because I haven’t been banned yet. I’ve been banned on other blogs, and that’s something I’m proud of. It pleases me to know that I got to the blog’s founders. That I got under their skin. That they just couldn’t take it anymore.
I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I don’t know how many times I’ve attacked Goldy’s character, and called this blog a piece of shit. I don’t know how many times I’ve used the word nigger.
Has anyone ever been banned from this blog? What did they do to get banned?
9 Don’t cream your jeans yet, dude. Nobody gets banned here. Some folks tend to sort of drift away, after they come to realize the purpose they’re serving here is comic relief.
@8 Yeah, I know — I read that in the newspaper article Jon linked to, too.
We could throw some democrats in a volcano to please the banking gods.
@9 “Has anyone ever been banned from this blog? What did they do to get banned?”
Why should we tell you that? Are you trying to get banned? Is there money on the line — did you make a bet with someone that you could get yourself banned from HA? Fuck you. You lose, boy. Pay up.
@12 You know where to find me any time you think you’re man enough.
@12
I think the banking gods would be more pleased with free market fundamentalists. Their hubris is in large part responsible for the current crisis.
In a previous thread, Right Wing Idiot posted comments expressing a feeling of grievance over what has happened in the last 8 years and a thirst for “revenge.”
Revenge for what? In the last 8 years, Republicans slept on guard duty while terrorists plotted to attack our country, started an unnecessary war against a country that hadn’t attacked or threatened us, tortured innocent people, violated the Constitution and federal criminal statutes by spying on American citizens, rigged elections, railroaded innocent people to jail, ran the most corrupt administration since the Civil War, gutted consumer protections and worker rights, wrecked the economy, and impugned the patriotism of anyone who criticized them — and HE feels aggrieved?
Does Right Wing Idiot think we’re responsible for wrecking the presidency of the incompetent baboon he voted for?
Okay. You fuckwads want revenge, come and get it! We’ve got a trainload of revenge waiting for you.
Judge Orders Stevens Trial Probe
According to McClatchey Newspapers, the federal judge who presided over the corruption trial of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens is “stunned by the conduct of the Justice Department” and “has ordered U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to provide an accounting for how his prosecutors handled a whistle-blower complaint” in the case.
It’s comforting to know that in only 2 more days, the pink-cheeked children from Liberty University “Law School” will be replaced by real lawyers.
When banks loan money to people who can’t pay it back, the banks eventually fail. No matter how nice the Community Re-Investment Act was on paper and had such noble goals, the reality of it was that the CRA was a disaster.
You can’t loan money to people who can’t pay it back unless you’re in the business of giving money away.
Time to grade this sprawl-hating post. Judging by how many comments are off-topic (which means the post was boring), I give it a D.
Try again, John.
18 Actually, it ain’t likely to be that easy. After pissing all over the civil service rules to toss competent people on the street and replace them with Monica Goodling clones, the Bush gang made sure that the incoming administration, which will no doubt respect the CS rules, will have to establish gross incompetence and/or malfeasance on the part of each and every one of the little shits before he or she can be fired.
@19 The CRA was enacted in 1977 and worked fine until Bush got his paws on it. Traffic laws won’t work, either, if you fire all the cops and don’t enforce anything. The GOP’s anti-regulation laissez-faire bullshit is responsible for this mess.
@20 Here’s an off-topic post for you: Fuck you.
@21 U.S. Attorneys serve at the president’s pleasure, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys serve at the U.S. Attorney’s pleasure. They can all be replaced at noon on Tuesday.
Some say troll is a self important fool with the maturity of a 14 year old.
@25 That old?
Open Letter To Fascist Trolls
Dear Trolls,
Please join us on Tuesday in a collective sigh of relief and a national celebration on the occasion of restoring adult leadership to our nation. We won’t start hanging traitors until Wednesday.*
Sincerely, R. Rabbit
* Just kidding! Ann Coulter joke.
Funny thing is, while your savior admires Lincoln, Lincoln was against mixing the races. He also wanted ship blacks back to Africa.
Why does the imbecile who posts as “troll” think any of us give two shits about his opinion about well…anything?
There are some real dumbshit trolls here but this guy is an absolute moron.
@29 Like all delusional nuts, he enjoys hearing himself talk.
@29
Because you’re talking about what I want you to talk about. That’s why I KNOW you give two shits about me. This is MY blog. People come here to read me.
Troll- Mom wants you to take out the garbage! Off to your chores.
@31 I’m still hoping that you’re going to participate in the intervention I have planned for Cynical when he gets back. We’re going to need some friends of his there. Narcissistic Personality Disorder can be serious shit. We’ve got to get him into psychotherapy. Sooner than later, I’d say, judging from his last few posts.
Hey right wing fools – you watching true Americans celebrate the joy of our new President?
Are you watching true Americans as they laugh at you and your leader STUPID?
Are you feeling sore from the royal ass-fucking we gave you on Nov 4?
This Tuesday – your nightmare officially begins.
You have been rejected. You have been denied. You have been deemed irrelevant.
I am LAUGHING today as I watch Dems TAKE – that’s right bitches TAKE power away from you. And there’s not one motherfucking thing you can do about it!
Funny thing is, while your savior admires Lincoln, Lincoln was against mixing the races. He also wanted ship blacks back to Africa.
What did you expect? He was a Republican, wasn’t he?
I KNOW you give two shits about me.
Actually, I’ll give you all the shit you could ever want.
@2
Being a homosexual and/or a dwarf has nothing to do with ones knowledge of economics.
@6
Sprawl has to do with land use regulations, or the complete lack there of.
@6
Anyone el
That isn’t the thesis of this post.
@19
The CRA never forced a single bank to make a single bad loan.
The CRA, also, didn’t force Lehman Brothers (and all the others in the same boat) to extend their debit to asset ratio well beyond what was legal. The CRA didn’t force the SEC to look the other way and grant LB exemption after exemption as they racked their D/A to 30:1. Thankfully, the “free market” morons that let LB happen have been issued their walking papers.
The CRA was enacted by Carter and really enforced by Clinton. Banks, in order to boost their CRA participation, made bad loans to keep the politically correct regulator Nazis off their backs. Carter, Clinton, Bush, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd can all take the blame for the bank problems because they didn’t repeal the CRA.
PS – I remember hearing a bunch of banks executives I knew talking about making a loan because it made the bank “look good” under the CRA. Don’t even try to suggest that your precious government doesn’t have some blame here when it comes to the banks!
The banking problem is yet another example of the road to Hell being paved with good intentions.
Some people seem to think that Republican shit doesn’t stink.
@ 40
“debit to asset ratio”
It’s debt to asset ratio, you dolt. Do you know anything about financial analysis? Or are you just shooting your mouth off?
@43,
Who do you have in mind?
It’s for whom the shoe fits, of course. Try it on for size.
@ 46,
Sorry, it’s not my size.
Republican shit doesn’t smell any better than Democratic shit. Both the major parties are useless.