PayThink

Regarding the disclosure of CAMEL ratings, Aesop recalls the fable of "The Mice and the Weasels" who waged a perpetual war with one another.

2011 acted as a wake-up call to what is happening in our nation. The very fabric of the American Dream is being unwoven by globalization, public policy and even consumer behavior.

In response to State Employees Credit Union disclosing its CAMEL rating and the resulting fallout in North Carolina, I think that transparency is always best. Examination ratings and examination findings should be public information.

President Obama assured that 2012 would get off to a rousing start when he made a recess appointment of Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Predictably, the appointment generated both praise and outrage.

Frivolously adding armor to combat planes makes the aircraft difficult to control and less effective. Weighting down banks with ill-conceived risk mitigation strategies and regulations serves the interests of neither individual banks nor the banking system as a whole.

A Chief Risk Officer can now have significant stature and sway. But that new prominence gives shareholders, regulators, and the media an easy target for ridicule after a corporate stumble.

Here we go again. A series of uncoordinated government policies are once more setting up the U.S. banking system for major losses and possibly another financial crisis.

Before changes are made to money fund regulation there should be a full assessment of the SEC’s enhancements to its oversight of funds, as well as a searching inquiry into the potential impact of any of the proposed reforms on investors, on issuers of commercial paper, and on the economy as a whole.

The key is to make sure that the homeowner is giving up something of value in return for relief of some portion of the mortgage obligation.

The World Economic Forum just released its yearly report. It's a run-up to the gathering of the economic tribe at Davos later this month and lists global concerns that should be placed high on one's "worry list." Last year it was natural disasters; this year, it's income inequality. Big surprise? No. Props to Occupy Wall Street for helping put this on the Davos radar screen.