PayThink

With all the twists and backroom turns, government officials’ quest for a settlement and restitution from banks and mortgage servicers is starting to resemble a 1960s screwball comedy.

So who exactly made the move on Bank Transfer Day? Was it young, angry hipsters?

The fact of the matter is that banks can manipulate earnings, and consequently capital, through decisions about loss provisioning.

Caught between Democrats and Republicans, Freddie Mac is guilty of the ultimate sin: owning something it can't easily explain.

Many blame the current banking industry malaise on the economy. Its problems, however, involve deeper structural issues.

The blog Deus Ex Macchiato has some fun with the "famous (and unfairly derided) Rumsfeld quote." You know, the one about "known knowns" and "unknown unknows."

The largest institutions face feeble economic growth, a moribund housing market, chronically high unemployment, regulatory uncertainty and low rates as far as the eye can see. How will they make money?

To absorb a large warehouse operation would require purchasing the whole bank, not just the warehouse business.

I recently recounted a personal story to a bank's management team that I've shared frequently over the years. I tell it to drive home the point about the importance of eliminating "clutter" that accumulates in our organizations over time. As the group laughed, I assured them that, sadly, this was a true story.

Some people are waiting for the next shoe to drop. The first shoe of economic woe is the mortgage mess. That's still not cleaned up and back to normal, whatever the new normal will be. Could the next shoe be the auto insurance business?