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The Banker Who Said No

forbes.com

1–10 of 67 posts

Re: The Banker Who Said No

#2
FTA:

> "This is the opportunity of my lifetime," says Beal. "We are going to be a $30 billion bank without any help from the government." (A slight overstatement: He is quick to say he relies on federal deposit insurance.)

And he pays for it, too (premiums, y'know). That's not "help" as we usually mean the word; that's a purchased service. Now, as for the bailouts -- which Beal is not getting -- that is "help".

Re: The Banker Who Said No

#3

FTA: > "This is the opportunity of my lifetime," says Beal. "We are going to be a $30 billion bank without any help from the government." (A slight overstatement: He is quick to say he relies on federal deposit insurance.) And he pays for it, too (premiums, y'know). That's not "help" as we usually mean the word; that's a purchased service. Now, as for the bailouts -- which Beal is not getting -- that is "help".

It is a good read and he obviously is a "good" banker for not overextending his bank. But to say he doesn't rely on government help makes it sound like he runs a normal corporation. Banks are not normal corporations. Mine can't loan out money at 26 times my deposits. Can yours? Of course not, your not a bank. This is the rub with banks. They want to behave like private entities, but they leverage government backed currency which normal corps cannot do.

I think we need a new class of corporation for banks and possibly insurance companies. A class that recognized they are hybrid entities, and not the same as a typical private company. It turns out we sort of do have this class (there are lots of hoops to jump through to become a bank). But this class is built on top of the normal rights and privileges of the standard corporate entity.

Re: The Banker Who Said No

#5
post #3

FTA: > "This is the opportunity of my lifetime," says Beal. "We are going to be a $30 billion bank without any help from the government." (A slight overstatement: He is quick to say he relies on federal deposit insurance.) And he pays for it, too (premiums, y'know). That's not "help" as we usually mean the word; that's a purchased service. Now, as for the bailouts -- which Beal is not getting -- that is "help".

It is a good read and he obviously is a "good" banker for not overextending his bank. But to say he doesn't rely on government help makes it sound like he runs a normal corporation. Banks are not normal corporations. Mine can't loan out money at 26 times my deposits. Can yours? Of course not, your not a bank. This is the rub with banks. They want to behave like private entities, but they leverage government backed cu…

> Mine can't loan out money at 26 times my deposits. Can yours? Of course not, your not a bank.

Does your corporation have to abide by all of the banking rules? Of course not, you're a regular corporation. If you want to be a bank, start one. It's a pain in the ass but can be lucrative.

Re: The Banker Who Said No

#6
To prepare bids he locked himself in his office to write a computer program with 50 variables (now 250), ranging from home price changes by neighborhood to interest rates to origination dates.

Yep, he's a hacker.

Re: The Banker Who Said No

#7
"To prepare bids he locked himself in his office to write a computer program with 50 variables (now 250), ranging from home price changes by neighborhood to interest rates to origination dates." - Forbes.com 2009

"Beware of geeks bearing formulas" - Warren Buffet 2008

Re: The Banker Who Said No

#8
post #3

FTA: > "This is the opportunity of my lifetime," says Beal. "We are going to be a $30 billion bank without any help from the government." (A slight overstatement: He is quick to say he relies on federal deposit insurance.) And he pays for it, too (premiums, y'know). That's not "help" as we usually mean the word; that's a purchased service. Now, as for the bailouts -- which Beal is not getting -- that is "help".

It is a good read and he obviously is a "good" banker for not overextending his bank. But to say he doesn't rely on government help makes it sound like he runs a normal corporation. Banks are not normal corporations. Mine can't loan out money at 26 times my deposits. Can yours? Of course not, your not a bank. This is the rub with banks. They want to behave like private entities, but they leverage government backed cu…

Lot of upmods for an extremely confused post.

Mine can't loan out money at 26 times my deposits. Can yours? Of course not, your not a bank.

...oh kay.

A class that recognized they are hybrid entities, and not the same as a typical private company

Umm. You seem to be getting at GSEs, a standard corporate form.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government-owned_corporation

Generally, this doesn't seem to work out too well with financial companies, see Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac (which weren't GSEs, but close enough...) The truth is, the vast bulk of banks were perfectly healthy and responsible. Almost all the trouble came from a few gigantic ones, and the reasons for their behavior were many.

Re: The Banker Who Said No

#9
Does anyone know if it's possible for an individual to buy a CDO?

Supposedly everyone wants to get rid of these things and is desperate for cash, which makes it seem like a decent opportunity for buyers. If I had $10,000 I could afford to lose (and was willing to take a long shot with) is there some market where I can buy those sort of assets?

Re: The Banker Who Said No

#10
I think it's pretty telling that this guy was investigated for not consuming the fraudulent crap coming out of Wall Street.

Wouldn't that be like a 1999 startup being investigated because they didn't have exponential growth projections in the IPO prospectus?

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