Some of you may know that I’m a historian of American banking and finance—that was my original research area and I probably wrote 4-5 books on the subject. What makes that all the more remarkable is that I never took a formal course in banking, finance, or even economics in my life. It was all “on the job training.”
So in a recent chat with a former co-author, Professor Charles Calormiris of Columbia University, on an article that came to be the most-cited piece I’ve ever written (“The Panic of 1857,” Journal of Economic History), our conversation naturally turned to banking. He began discussing research from his 2015 book “Fragile By Design” with Stephen Haber. He mentioned that something they found in that book now seemed all the clearer in light of recent riots.
In the 1990s through the early 2000s, there was a merger wave occurring among banks and financial firms. Many of you will remember your local, hometown banks began to disappear, replaced by J. P. Morgan Chase, Citibank, Wachovia, and Bank of America. It turns out that in the late 1990s, in order to gain congressional approval for these pending mergers, the banks needed to get certain legislators on their side. Legislators who were, shall we say, highly persuaded by minority communities. More to the point, the big banks needed leading black organizations and leaders to support their mergers.
Now, you ask, what possibly could be the benefit to minorities of having giants like Citibank or Chase take over more local banks? Under normal circumstances, nothing. But shakedown artists like Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton always know where to find a buck. In this case it was “community reinvestment.” Banks, they figured, could be “encouraged” to make massive loans in minority neighborhoods. Gee, someone might have to, er, “direct” such lending, wouldn’t they?
Absolutely. May I introduce NCRC, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Bank loans to the “minority community” were funneled through the NCRC—no doubt with the reverends taking a reasonable fee for their services—and in return, the black community wrote letters and gave testimony supporting the mergers. Just how much money are we talking about here? Two trillion dollars.
That money began to run out in 2015. The loans were usually either 10- or 15-year loan programs. “What’s the big deal? Just go back and shake them down again,” you say. Not so fast: the mergers are already complete. The banks don’t need the black community anymore. Just where were the bulk of these loans made? Oh, my friends, you know the answer to that. Calomiris and Haber found the usual suspects: Baltimore, St. Louis, Chicago—virtually anywhere there has been a riot recently.
It’s abundantly clear that one (perhaps only one, but perhaps the most important) of the factors that kept the streets quiet was the “walkin’ around money” spread by the banks seeking mergers. While the “Black Lives Matter” corporate coercion may produce relative dabs of cash, the leaders of these movements cannot hope to make up a $2 trillion shortfall.
But, if true… that would imply coordination of the riots.
one of the most egregious fallacies of the career criminal floyd is that if could not breath he could not have talked. basic science. need to have oxygen/air mixture in the lungs to speak.
blm are supported by hamas and the plo-both terrorist groups. Trump needs to declare blm and antif(**k)up domestic terrorist cells/organizations
remember, if you can not breath you can not talk
Okay,, So? I dont get how riots and destruction work to repair the problem for the banks that made loans that arent gettin paid,, What am I missing, aside from brains enough to get it?
@Nolan Parker: The race hustlers will begin shake-downs again to rebuild what their Brownshirts destroyed.
The N shall rise agaiN.
If White Americans had not BOUGHT slaves in the first place, we would have virtually no racial diversity in America today.
Instead, Whites DID buy and abuse Blacks, and like in the Middle East – where Muslims and Jews have been at each other’s throats for over 2000 years – we are now locked in an eternal, racially differentiated civil war.
You have your relatives to thank.
@George Wells: In Lybia today hopeful immigrants are sold into Slavery for around 200 bucks, so much for that European holiday.
Most Blacks want to live in peace with their white neighbors and visa versa. Race baiters along with organized and trained marxists groups are fully responsible for the organized unrest.
I dont have relatives to thank for this. Great grand parents on both sides came to America in the late 1800s. Moms from French Canada, and Dads from Norway good peasant stock to poor to own slaves they had to do their own work just like the 98.6% of all other American Caucasians.
@George Wells: And if the dog hadn’t stopped to shit, he’d have caught the rabbit.
@kitt:
OK, so I’ll give you a hall-pass on that, IF you accept that those glorious “Founding Fathers” – whose personal views on issues y’all so often want to use to trump whatever modern judicial theory suggests – are who legitimized slavery in our fledgling nation in the first place. At the time, all of the maritime nations that had their hands dirtied in the slave trade begged off on taking responsibility for it, each deferring to OUR interest in buying the human flesh that they were selling. And for all their lofty rhetoric, those Founding Fathers couldn’t find the courage to face off the Southern land owners who depended on slave labor to keep their sprawling plantations profitable. This was one of the first crimes against humanity committed in the name of the “Almighty Dollar,” ranking right up there with our perpetual mistreatment of the indigenous “Indian” population we found when we came here.
Genocide has taken many forms as history has unfolded, but none of them have been morally defensible. And whenever two vastly different cultures have AT each other, the result invariably is that neither side EVER fully forgives the other.
Not the Arabs and the Jews, the Blacks and the Whites, or any and all of the other sects that have been taring at each other’s throats for millennia.
And you are right that most Blacks and most Whites don’t want “war.” But remember that in our Revolutionary War, most colonists didn’t want either war OR independence from Britain. No country ever goes to war with the majority of its citizens in favor of it. So much for letting the voters decide anything!
@George Wells: I dont believe in your white guilt. Nor Judging those in the past by todays so called moral standards and ethics, so F*ck right off with that crap. None of these marxists have ever been slaves, live at standards of kings compared to when there was slavery in this country, indoor plumbing and electricity any type of food they wish at grocery stores all because of the founding of this country and the genius constitution they created.
Give them everything they want it will never be good enough and it will destroy what you have.
You think you’re woke?
@kitt:
They are here now ONLY because we kidnapped them and brought them here against their will. But for that stupid, selfish mistake, we wouldn’t have been wondering out loud back in the 1950’s if we shouldn’t just ship them all back to Africa (remember THAT great idea?) and we wouldn’t now have over 40 million of them here in the USA creating social mayhem. And if they WEREN’T here, the GOP wouldn’t be focusing on “voter fraud,” voter suppression, the high cost of Welfare, the ridiculously high numbers of incarcerated Black males, the absurdly low percentage of Black children who have two parents, the shamefully high proportion of looters who just accidentally happen to be Black, the nasty habit of Black GIRLS who indiscriminately get knocked up and then become abortion nightmares for the GOP, and damned near all of them WOULDN’T be falling victim to the insincere pandering of the Democratic party. Plus, according to you, they are Marxists! Oh, that’s right. We DON’T have a race problem here in the USA, “systemic” or otherwise. LOL!
Go ahead and try to address this simple truth instead of laying down a smoke-screen of insults directed at me in a transparent attempt to deflect attention away from how empty of substance your position is. Oh, that’s right. You DON’T have a position. You’re no better than a coronavirus, out to make people ill without giving it a thought. Did your mother teach you to be such a nasty potty-mouth?
@George Wells: WE’s ass. The British brought them here.
@Deplorable Me:
Right… We were ALL British, except for some French here and there, but who’s counting. That is, until a FEW of us revolted and we became US instead of THEM. But isn’t that splitting hairs, since we are still the same people that we were?
Or are you arguing that because the slaves were BROUGHT to us in British, Spanish and Portuguese ships instead of ships of the United States (which did not exist until we won our independence) we weren’t RESPONSIBLE for what we did to the Black slaves WE bought – never mind in what currency we paid for them.
Come on DM. You aren’t REALLY trying to pin slavery on someone other than the the Europeans (us) who bought the slaves and their (our) “founding Fathers” who enabled that great mischief, are you?
No, it wasn’t you or me personally who did it, but it was OUR race that did it to THEIR race, here on what is still essentially OUR soil. Like every other blood-feud that has plagued humanity down through the ages, the stain of slavery is on the hands of the descendants of the original and successive slave owners until forgiven. That debt remains in effect, as it hasn’t been forgiven.
@George Wells: No, WE aren’t British. Neither are we slave owners. WE have nothing to do with any of that; it’s OVER.
@Deplorable Me:
Apparently King George doesn’t know that free blacks owned slaves. Or that in order for there to be a buyer for slaves, there had to be a seller.
@George Wells:
Totally ignorant, they were purchased from Muslims and other Africans slave traders, loaded up and brought here and resold.
No one was prancing around in the jungle with a big ol butterfly net.
Most were prisoners of war or sold by their own Chiefs to the slave traders.
We didnt do anything only 1.4% of the entire population at the height of slavery owned a slave.
They could have just as easily been sold to an African and had to remain on their continent, no one has stopped any of them from returning to their homeland since 1864.
I said BLM are marxist, you racist bastard, dont lump all blacks with those terrorists.
@Deplorable Me:
Where’d THAT come from.
This is what I said:
See the word “were”?
The fact that you and Retire000 are in rampant denial of where and on whose account the race problem in America originated is symptomatic of why that problem will never be solved. You accept no responsibility for it. Zero. Which is about as useful as expecting a Black man to stand up and announce that HE is the whole problem, which, by the way, he is not.
Look at you two racists, heals dug in, desperate to find some trivial historical detail that you can cling to in the hope that it will somehow absolve you from fault.
Really, Retire? Because a Black guy did something, it’s OK for you to do the same thing? Didn’t your Mother teach you that two wrongs don’t make a right, and that just because someone else does something, that doesn’t make it right for you to do it? There are sellers of cocaine. Does that make it OK for you to buy it?
You should be embarrassed.
@George Wells:
It is simple, really. The slave ships docked at the coast of Africa and waited for African tribes (one being the tribe whose colors Nancy Pelosi donned just recently) to sell them slaves captured in tribal raids. Hence, the seller.
And, Mr. Ahole, I am NOT British. I am of Native American and Irish, post slavery, stock. So don’t label me with your preconceived morality.
Another news flash; I have never sold, bought or owned a slave.
@kitt:
And what, that relieves white Americans of any responsibility for slavery, because someone ELSE sold those slaves to us?
And for us to be responsible for slavery, 51% of us would have had to own slaves? What sort of nonsense is that?
So only 1.4% of Americans owned slaves. Right? Then how come the rest of us allowed such a tiny fraction of our population to #1. force the Continental Congress to allow slavery in the first place, and #2. Allow that slavery to continue for almost another hundred years.
It took the Civil War to settle the slavery issue.
Oh, that’s right. The Civil War wasn’t at all about slavery. LOL.
Just like Trump. So busy concocting false history that you are blinded by the truth.
The adage “If you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem” certainly applies here.
No wonder there are so few Black Republicans.
@retire05:
See. I just explained to you what the race problem in America stems from, and you are busy personally exonerating yourself and your family’s ancestors from that ugly part of American history.
IT ISN’T ABOUT YOU!
JESUS , MARY AND JOSEPH!
IT’S ABOUT WHAT ONE RACE DID TO ANOTHER RACE.
WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO FIGURE THAT OUT???
@George Wells: You should be embarrassed to know so little. the first legal slave owner in the colonies was a black man .
Anthony Johnson was a black Angolan known for achieving wealth in the early 17th-century Colony of Virginia. He was one of the first African American property owners but not the only and had his right to legally own a slave recognized by the Virginia courts. In 1654, John Casor became the first legal slave in America, 78 Years before G Washington was even born.
Oh my it was legal before the founding of the country! A black man could own property and other black men too. Wow not every person that signed the constitution was a slave owner.
It was not all about race there were white indentured slaves. It was about cheap labor.
@kitt:
I know enough to know why we have the race problem we have today.
I also know that you and yours will never understand that problem.
That’s why YOUR sorry crybaby in the White House won’t be there much longer, because he doesn’t get it either.
I guess HE, like YOU, thinks slavery was a Black-on-Black problem.
The only REAL question is why am I bothering to help YOU understand this?
I’m happier when you haven’t got a clue.
So no more help from me.
Laugh all you want now, because come November, that nincompoop who the majority of voters in 2016 DIDN’T vote for will be departing 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the last time.
Then, instead of fantasizing about RBG NOT dying before 2024, you might ask a few Black folks who they blamed for slavery, and see if they think THEY were the problem, or if they think Whites weren’t. Tell them you have a need to know.
@George Wells: Ask the people today that are in slavery who is at fault, who is trafficking them. I really will not accept that its my fault, for any of it. If you think its your fault then divest of all your possessions and give it to them. Become their slave Im sure they will have much more empathy than the slave owners of over 145 years ago. Be woke George, I’ll be armed, you be woke.
As the powers advance the agenda using the pandemic and the riots, its only you that really understands what they want and how to make them happy.
Maybe you should take time to look into the “big reset.”
@kitt:
You know that giving… GIVING people money never accomplishes anything more than stimulating their appetite for MORE money. Except for some greedy souls and the politicians who pander shamelessly to them, “reparations” aren’t the answer. We both know that GIVING money isn’t the solution.
I will here-with thank Donald Trump for handing Joe Biden yet another priceless gift on a silver platter. Trump’s request that the Supreme Court kill Obamacare for good couldn’t come at a better time for Sleepy Joe. Taking healthcare AWAY from 20 million Americans – AND killing protections for pre-existing conditions – in the midst of this pandemic is astonishingly heartless, the voters know that and will say so in November. Thank you, Orange-Daddy!
With Trump so locked into munching on his own two feet, there’s no reason for Biden to utter a single word. Because Trump can be counted on to keep up the BS non-stop. All those “advisors” of his who keep trying to corral Trump’s low-caliber loose-cannon of a mouth haven’t managed to shut him up. So let him dig his own hole and climb in. Just you watch as he tries desperately to hang on to his precious base of 40%, with every step further alienating the rest of the country. That’s a “stable genius” for you – he can’t even do simple arithmetic.
By the way – nice threat, that thing about you having guns. I’d expect nothing more out of a Republican. So who are you going to shoot up when Trump loses in November?
Reparations, thru the gov’t, will NOT come out of “whites” pockets.
SOME of it will, but much of it will come out of Asian, Hispanic, black, and even Native American pockets.
See, taxes are paid by ALL Americans who reach a certain level of income.
And, frankly, before the Kung Flu (to borrow a phrase from the OBAMA Admin) destroyed so many jobs, there was no black outcry because there was less and less “disparity.”
More blacks had jobs than ever in American history.
They had hopes of raises, of prosperity, of a secure future.
As did we all.
But the flu hit lots of people hard in the pocketbook.
BLM riffed off that fact.
Biden stupidly went on an interview with Charlemaign tha god who reminded all his (mostly black) listeners that “we” don’t care about your past acts, it’s all “what have you done for us [blacks] lately?”
And that really contributed to these riots.
Blacks are trying to convince people like Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler to do stuff for them NOW.
Reparations is just another threat-arrow in their quiver.
@Nan G:
“Reparations” are nothing but extortion – payments for protection in lieu of looting or whatever other type of theft is the flavor-du-jour.
Anyone asking for a financial settlement due them because of slavery should be given a choice: A one-way ticket to the African country of their choice, or a front-row, standing-room-only position on the receiving end of a firing squad, the severity of either option justified because we’ve been dragged down this path once too often and are now terminally weary of the demand.
Speaking of weary, who here honestly believes that blaming Obama is going to fix anything? For that matter, when has placing blame EVER worked for ANYONE?
If you THINK you have a case for seeking damages, then take your complaint to court. If you are attempting to address problems in the here-and-now, the solutions to those problems have to come from the same place. If you prevail in court, that’s here-and-now. Everything that Obama and Hillary Clinton did is in the past. Get over it.
@George Wells: We are not going to get over it Georgie, until the democrats get over Trump winning.
Threat? no just a reminder there are alot of people out here that wont accept the tyranny of marxists will not tolerate our businesses being burnt , looted and our officers attacked. I am already armed, I dont need to make a run on the gun store, have been armed for many years didnt shoot anything up when Democrats won, no riots or looting.
Tell that to the marxist slavery in this country was 145 years ago, not 1 black is still alive that experienced that so get over it.
No one is taking away healthcare, that was done by the program that didnt allow choice and did’nt pay enough to keep rural hospitals and clinics open.
Just got a letter from my accountant for fees paid that were deemed unconstitutional, I might get a big fat tax refund no guarantee but Im filing to get back the money taken from me when I decided to go self insured, otherwise known as pay my own way.
There are many clinics now that charge 50 bucks a month for unlimited visits and care. doesnt cover hospitalization but I am sure they will soon follow the subscription style program.
Cut the government and insurance companies out and things get better under a free market.
@George Wells:
Since I wasn’t alive during the slavery period, and have never bought, sold or owned a slave, I hold no personal responsibility for the practice.
Then what the F**k is it about? I am in the here and now, and when radicals threaten my safety and security, it damn sure is about me.
Really? Then where are the marches demanding the monuments to the Buffalo Soldiers be torn down?
When are you going to figure out that is a fallacy? It is the pretense for the marching, riots and looting. It is history repeating itself. BLM/Antifa is nothing more than Weather Underground/Black Panthers Part Deux. Slavery is the excuse. Power is the cause.
I gave you credit for being smarter than that. I now admit I was wrong. You just ain’t that smart.
@retire05:
Nope.
Never happened.
Fake news.
As for your Buffalo Soldiers and your Tuskegee Airmen etc., nobody ever accused every White or every Black of being guilty of racial warfare. Raising examples that AREN’T part of the problem helps in what way?
Oh, I see. It was just another smoke screen to divert attention. I can always depend you to contribute that, but little else.
As for statues, their original purpose is long lost on generations that were not taught the historical significance of the persons or events depicted. Sadly, when armed with hastily acquired historical misinformation, animals do stupid things. Sort of adds legitimacy to my argument that not all animals/people deserve the right to vote. And there are states that allow felons to vote! Talk about cheapening a sacred right!
Wondering why you mix “marching” with “rioting” and “looting.”
You have a right to protest, and that includes marching. Sure, sometimes marching beCOMES rioting, but they are two different animals. Sometimes owning a gun beCOMES murder, but they are not locked in a cause-and-effect relationship.
@George Wells:
Sorry, Prince George. I never mentioned the Tuskegee Airmen. But, as is your wont to do, you have to add to what I say to make your point.
And that is included in the U.S. Constitution where?
@retire05:
First of all, you generally are allowed to do what is not specifically prohibited by statute.
Looting is prohibited by laws that make theft a crime, the precise type of crime being determined by the value of what is stolen – misdemeanor below a certain value, felony above. You know this.
Rioting would fall under “disturbances of the peace,” “failure to heed the direction of the police,” “resisting arrest” and other such ordinances, as the essential aspect of a ‘riot” is that it is out-of-control, and likely to include violence and property damage, both of which carry proportional civil penalties. A “riot” might also become an armed insurrection in certain cases, and would then trigger a more vigorous government response. You know this, too.
On the other hand, the right to “protest” and to “march” are both protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution of The United States of America. And as you are well aware of everything constitutional, I can’t imagine why you want me to remind you again, but here it is:
.
In some cases, in the interest of public safety, municipalities may require that gatherings be permitted by application that specifies time, place, size and or other parameters such as are deemed necessary in the interest of said public safety, but neither state nor local government may infringe upon rights constitutionally granted. You knew all of this.
You just like to read my writing, don’t you!
What a sweetheart!
XOXO!
@retire05:
The Bill of Rights. The right to peaceably assemble has been there since the first ten amendments were ratified.
@Nan G:
That would be pretty easy to remedy. Check a box, pay the tax. If you are an approved skin color, you can get a tax exemption. Now, if that color was WHITE, it would be racist. Any other would be social justice.
@Deplorable Me: We must remember BLM speaks for all black people https://twitter.com/ArtValley818/status/1276002632134307840
I love it when she has one of her frequent attacks of stupidity.
But she tries hard, and that counts for something.
But no “E” for “effort” this time, as her question was just a lazy knee-jerk, hostility for the sake of hostility and nothing else.