28 SEP 2009, Monday

1. Sheesh! I can't believe I'm saying this but...It's times like these that require the ole' Paulson & Bernanke tactics on the banks. Remember when they forced the TARP funds into banks that supposedly didn't want or need it?
2. Well, you see, the FDIC insurance fund (DIF) that backs bank accounts in the event of bank failure by law has always been funded by charging banks a fee for it. But banks have been blowing up at great expense to the FDIC. By the way, these bank blowups have been very large because the regulators kept looking the other way when they should have instead closed many banks on the spot instead of "allowing more time"...while the problems just worsened.
3. So, now FDIC is supposedly broke (not true as the lesser preferred option is always US Treasury funding....taxpayers bend over again). Sheila Baird (current FDIC Chair) is asking the banks to prepay their funding to recharge the DIF. Asking???!
4. I say screw that! Hmmm...what about all the banks that got TARP money??? How's about we take the TARP funding back from the banks that just reported RECORD profits supposedly.
5. And further, those that enjoyed these same RECORD profits (cough Goldman cough cough) should get a 20% assessment against those profits they made with taxpayer funded backing. The US taxpayer gave them free money instead of a loan at a high interest rate to compensate for the risk of no pay back. You know, like the banks are doing to you now as they jack credit card rates toward 30%
6. WTF??!