January, 2010

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The Mortgage Market Meltdown & Uncle Sam

Jeff For Banks

'There is a lot of troubling discussion about what to do so the mortgage meltdown that occurred in late 2008 does not happen again. Public outrage was first directed at banks in general, then migrated upstream to the big "fat-cat bankers", i.e. those top 19 banks that were told to take TARP funds. Now, politicians and former Fed officials (namely, former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker) are calling for a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, that depression era law that separated commercial banking from in

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Banks and Old Time Hockey

Jeff For Banks

'I went to see an AHL hockey game last night, the Hershey Bears versus the Albany River Rats. You are probably already thinking of how I''m going to build a bridge between hockey and banking, but bear with me. You, like me, probably think of hockey players as some version of the 1970''s movie Slap Shot. Tough guys. Not somebody you would find sipping single cask scotch discussing finances.

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About Jeff For Banks

Jeff For Banks

'Welcome to my new blog about community banking. I titled it "Jeff For Banks" because I tend to be pretty passionate about the long term sustainability of the community banking industry. As an industry consultant, I am constantly learning about success stories in our industry. But banking is undergoing tremendous sea changes, and I thought a blog would be an excellent forum to discuss successes, challenges, ideas and anecdotes in an informal setting.