Phoenix and Las Vegas have grim long-term prospects. On top of oil-and-gas problems, they will have terrible problems with water and the ability to produce food locally. I suppose it shows how delusional the public is, and how our institutional controls have decayed - for instance, lending standards.
Home ownership was the fig leaf for the rise in subprime lending. But that was really about cash-out refinancings, not buying homes.
Our approach on lending has always been that we will lend to India-linked assets, because that's the risk that we understand, and that is the business that has been doing very well.
So you know, everyone points out Greece's default record, but the history of a lot of sovereign nations is not a good one when it comes to lending them money.
State funds, private equity, venture capital, and institutional lending all have their role in the lifecycle of a high tech startup, but angel capital is crucial for first-time entrepreneurs. Angel investors provide more than just cash; they bring years of expertise as both founders of businesses and as seasoned investors.
We should redefine the metric for effective lending, viz., prioritise loans to enterprises, which will generate more employment.
After getting driven into the ground by the policies of the Bush administration, the economy is creeping up. It's doing that because people are sticking their shoulders to the wheel. Community banks are doing a lot of lending to small businesses and keeping them going.
I've been focused on the West Coast economy and being a banker and lending in these markets.
I worked with Tyler before on 'Daddy's Little Girls'. He couldn't be smarter or more laid back and cool. He's always throwing out lines and is funny as hell. And he was shining his light on 'Peeples', too, lending his name to showcase Tina as a first-time director, and me as a first-time lead.
Lending rate is a function of both liquidity as well as credit demand.
Only institutions that go about the old-fashioned business of taking in deposits from customer A and lending them out to customer B should be called banks. The rest should call themselves what they are. 'Parlors' would be appropriate, or 'dens' - words more suitable to venerable betting pursuits.
Lending has come back in retail; it has come back in working capital. It has also come back in other forms, like government contract being given out to companies.
If anything, the bailouts actually hindered lending, as banks became more like house pets that grow fat and lazy on two guaranteed meals a day than wild animals that have to go out into the jungle and hunt for opportunities in order to eat.
A contingent bailout policy - implicit or explicit - must be coupled with some regulation of what banks can and cannot do. For example, a ban on lending to uncreditworthy customers might well make sense.
