The money we keep in the bank is supposed to help us sleep at night, not cause nightmares. ...more

August 7, 2008

Last week, Lutz-based banking analyst Richard Bove was in hot demand by media outlets eager to know how safe the nation's banks really are. ...more

July 22, 2008

Customers storming George Bailey's building and loan in the 1946 classic "It's a Wonderful Life" might seem more likely today, given the run on California-based IndyMac this week. ...more

July 17, 2008

A long history of bank bailouts around the world provides some models for what could unfold in the United States as the government becomes more directly involved in fixing a damaged financial system. ...more

July 17, 2008

The government's seizure of IndyMac Bank raises concerns for many consumers about whether their banks might be next. ...more

July 15, 2008

As home prices continue to decline and loan defaults mount, federal regulators are bracing for dozens of American banks to fail during the next year. ...more

July 14, 2008

Commissioner Robert Brown received a plaque and glowing tributes from colleagues during Monday's commission meeting, the last of his three-year term. ...more

May 29, 2008

In her 50 years in the banking business, Frances Register has seen the days of approving loans with a warm handshake give way to online processing, in which banker and client may never meet. ...more

May 21, 2008

A robbery suspect whose getaway car got stuck in traffic last week was captured when he got out and tried to make a run for it. ...more

May 3, 2008

Recently, the county commission decided to dismiss action on a proposed impact fee stimulus package. Charitably, it was not a good policy. A number of factors clearly illustrated that it would have jeopardized the local economy rather than stimulated it. That concept energized the following brief history of how such concepts affected working people in this country. Over a hundred years ago, President Teddy Roosevelt busted the robber barons. They had a stranglehold on workingmen. They dictated the price they paid for labor. Men worked 12 hour days, seven days a week for low wages with no vacations or sick leave. They worked till they dropped, 365 days a year. In the next 100 years, through bloody wars, goon squads and sheer persistence, working conditions improved. The '30s and '40s were pivotal decades in that slow process of working people earning a "piece of the pie," but they had to struggle to maintain the progress so bitterly fought for. The idea of "helping" the developers and construction industry "stimulate" the economy triggered recall of that history. Unions were formed to help workers collectively demand and earn better wages and work conditions. They gained those rights, but had to fight to keep them. In the '50s, the U.S. Congress passed laws to correct a flaw "discovered" in the wages and pension package. ...more

May 2, 2008