Crazy Talk

Banks are skimmers. In ideal world they do a job by having good underwriting standards, and allocating money to worthy borrowers, and in doing so earn the bit they skim. In actual world they take free money from the government and then bring it to the Great Casino.

f the U.S. federal government is going to be in the business of giving certain sectors a subsidy, the perk should go to manufacturing, not the financial sector, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Thomas Hoenig said Tuesday.

Hoenig said he’s not sure subsidies are needed but if they are going to exist, “I would rather subsidize the manufacturing sector,” he said at a conference in Washington.