In a desperately needed move this week, President Donald Trump fired Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB), and installed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as acting director. The leadership change comes after the agency aggressively expanded consumer protection…
Canada, our neighbor to the north as it is sometimes called, evokes mainly pastoral and benign images: vast timber, mineral, and other oil and gas resources; the mighty Canadian National Railway featured in one of Gordon Lightfoot’s ballads; the splendor…
When my wife Ellen of blessed memory, who passed on to Paradise in 2020, and I bought our house 20 years ago, it needed some work. We got a highly recommended electrician to switch many ceiling fixtures with recessed lighting….
During Thursday night’s debate between Presidents Biden and Trump many questions related to the state of the economy and economic policy were broached. Conspicuously absent from the debate, however, were any questions or even a mention of the largest economic…
Yesterday, as I was driving down to Rancho Mirage, I got a call from my bank telling me I was overdrawn. The bank is called First Credit Bank. It is a small entity, and I have been a depositor since…
Nobody likes paying fees. A fee, however, is a transparent way to reflect the price of something. In a market economy, prices convey vital information that consumers and producers use to make good decisions. A rise in the price of…
Amidst all the ongoing chaos on Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is working to deliver a boon to the cannabis industry with the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFER) Banking Act. Predictably, some Republicans have joined him under the…
Perfect storms occur in batches. It’s never a single event, a single wave. Bank executives, like ship captains, earn their keep during times of upheaval. The good ones anticipate events, examine cause and effect, assess risk, and chart the best…
Moral hazard occurs when an agreement that people make to act in concert for their mutual benefit results in an incentive for one of them to act immorally. The classic case is insurance. When an insurance company contracts with a…
