Banking Law

It's only $15 million (and another $100,000 in "change"), but when it comes to returning TARP CPP money, every little bit helps. It also sends another message to Congress and "The Change" that their getting what Barney Frank asked for: the return of "bailout" money. Not that any of the banks returning the capital actually needed it to begin with (and, therefore , were not "bailed out" of squat by the US Treasury). They took it because the government asked them to take it.



Let's not let inconvenient truth fog up the purple-colored glasses through which "Joe Six Pack" and the politicians who exploit him view the world these days.

"When we decided to accept funds under this program, we believed we were the type of healthy bank that could employ the funds in the manner consistent with the goals initially set out by the Congress and the Treasury," Douglas J. Leech, Centra's chairman and chief executive, said in a press release March 24. However, "we believe recent actions, interpretations and commentary regarding various aspects of the program place Centra at an unacceptable competitive disadvantage."

Mr. Leech is much too nice.

Speaking of fools, Barney Frank took time out from from spewing the love Antonin Scalia's way (for which he was soundly bitch-slapped today by Ann Althouse) to insist that the TARP love be spread over the land of mutuality.

The US Treasury is expected to issue rules today that would permit mutually owned banks - smaller banks that are numerous in Massachusetts - to participate in the government's $700 bailout fund.



Until now, only publicly or privately owned banks that issue stock have been able to take government investments in exchange for capital.

The Treasury, at the urging of US Representative Barney Frank, the Newton Democrat who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, is making accommodations so that mutual banks, owned by their customers, can take such investments, according to a person briefed on the plan. It's unclear how many mutuals need the capital and will take advantage of a new program.

"It's unclear how many mutuals need the capital." The idea behind the CPP is to give it to banks that don't necessarily need it, but who will use it to benefit the economy beyond the banking business. Like borrowers, for instance.

I'm sure that there's one mutual savings bank in Barney's district that needs the scratch to survive, as there was a stock institution associated with the spousal unit of House Thug Maxine Waters. Barney never promotes such programs out of the goodness of his small, shriveled heart. There's always a hidden agenda.