NY Times: One new bank in 2010, it's in a double-wide

[marmar]

By ANDREW MARTIN
Published: August 28, 2010


LAKE CHARLES, La. — The only new start-up bank to open in the United States this year operates out of a secondhand double-wide trailer, on a bare lot in front of the cavernous Trinity Baptist Church. A blue awning covers the makeshift drive-through window.

Called Lakeside Bank, it is run by a burly and balding former tackle for Louisiana State’s football team named Hartie Spence, who doles out countrified humor along with deposit slips and the occasional loan.

“This is the one place where the cause of death is mildew,” he quipped, standing outside the trailer in withering heat.

Asked how his bank in this steaming town of oil refineries and oversize casinos managed to win over federal regulators, Mr. Spence, 70, said, “I’m still thinking it’s my looks that did it.”

The dearth of new banks follows a particularly wrenching period for the industry. As the financial crisis deepened, hundreds of banks and thrifts closed and thousands more were saddled with bad loans and credit card defaults, costing the industry billions of dollars. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/business/29bank.html?_r=1

[T Wolf]

1. NOT a bad time for banks. Just a little consolidation / monopoply-building going on.

The facts about this new "bank" is a perfect metaphor for what America has turned into at the hands of a committed enemy (them), a complicit opposition (us), and a complacent population (us again).

If it wasn't so fucking tragic, it would be funny.

[DJ13]

2. See? Those FEMA trailers have a use after all

:rofl: