Regulators decided to give Blue Ridge Savings to the Bank of North Carolina, and here’s what I’m saying about what the newspapers are saying – as if you care:

According to the Mountaineer:

In early 2009, the FDIC cited the bank founded by former congressman Charles Taylor for “unsafe or unsound banking practices” and “violations violations of laws and regulations,” according to Blue Ridge Now.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and state banking commissioner cited the bank for a variety of violations including lax oversight of loans and having too many risky construction loans. The bank agreed to train its board of directors and create a directors committee to oversee the management.
The bank said it has agreed to fix the problems without admitting or denying the allegations and officials were working to fix some of the policies before the report was issued last year.

Quick Analysis:

  • In Literalville, one would conclude the bank or the Congressman was evil because there appears to be some attempt to establish guilt by association.
  • There appears to be a difference between unsafe or unsound banking practices and violations (word processing error forgiven) of laws and regulations, betraying the existence of government interference beyond the public protection excuses fed to the public.
  • Newspapers are getting their information from newspapers.
  • Banks are faulted for taking risks, and yet activists claiming alliance with one of the two big political parties continue to push for more of the same kinds of loans anybody in their right mind trying to stay in business wouldn’t offer.
  • How, pray tell, does one agree to fix a denied allegation?

The Asheville Citizen-Times offers clarification on the fourth bullet point. The Evil Developers are once again to blame:

“You had developers coming and borrowing money to do real estate projects. When the market softened, they could no longer develop those projects. So when those projects didn’t develop, they couldn’t repay their loans,” [FDIC spokesman Eric] Raines said. That eroded the bank’s capital, he said.

Lastly, as with all press releases these days, you must quote somebody who knows how to use the word “excited” in a sentence. The sentence must be syntactically correct, but no physical interpretation need exist. Then, add a “he said” or “she said”:

“We are excited to be in the area ,” he [David B. Spencer, chief financial officer for Bank of North Carolina] said.