New Orleans In some ways we all eventually come to grips with the fact that we are a “product of our raising,” as the expression down here goes and in the case of personal real estate and personal debts, I was my father’s son: conservative! When he retired after 38 years with an oil company, [...]
Shreveport An article in the NY Times asked a number of interesting questions about the $350 million IPO (Initial public offering) for SKS Microfinance including the push-out of the nonprofits by private investors, the use of the new money the nonprofits will still make along with where it will go and who will run [...]
New Orleans Finally Congress does the right thing, or at least some of the right things, and passes credit reform legislation, and now we have the spectacle of the federally bailed out banks desperately trying to hoodwink citizen customers into volunteering to allow their pockets to be picked. Banks have been making $40 billion in [...]
Quepos It was an extra present under the palm tree to read in the pre-dawn that Santa Barbara Bank & Trust was being pulled out of the business of factoring RALs, predatory refund anticipation loan for Jackson & Hewitt and other companies in the viciously competitive tax services market for lower income and working families. [...]