By Steve Rhodes
“Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias’ family bank failed because it was heavy into real estate loans and couldn’t absorb the losses during the economic downtown, but management also pursued other strategies that made the institution vulnerable, according to a report Tuesday from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s inspector general’s office,” AP reports.
“The agency said the bank had an ‘aggressive growth strategy’ to pursue commercial real estate and construction loans but didn’t have good credit risk management practices to manage the loans and then couldn’t withstand the losses in a worsening economy.”
Jaws Giorango was not available for comment.
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“The failure cost the FDIC’s Deposit Insurance Fund $390 million.”
Huh. Well, Alexi’s net worth is only about $30 million but maybe he can borrow some money from the Ricketts’ to pay the fund back.
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“Other factors also contributed to the bank failure, including out-of-territory lending in Florida and New York, investments in certain securities and other funding sources, such as brokered deposits, which increased the risk to the bank, the report said.”
Jaws Giorango wasn’t available for comment.
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“At of the end of 2007, loans outside the Chicago area accounted for 60% of the bank’s total lending, the report said,” Crain’s notes. “The bulk of those loans were to real estate developers and investors in New York City and Florida.”
Jaws Giorango . . .
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One of Broadway’s weakness was “Loan Grading and Review,” according to the report:
“Most of the examinations and visitations performed from 2005 to 2010 identified weaknesses in the bank’s loan grading and review practices and inadequate attention by bank management to address examiner concerns and recommendations related to this issue.”
Senior loan officer Alexi Giannoulias did not comment.
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Fantasy Island
“Federal health-care reform will give Illinois the opportunity to transform Medicaid into a program that saves money, keeps patients healthier and attracts more doctors, a member of Gov. Pat Quinn’s cabinet said Tuesday.”
Officials are also really excited about the provision promising unicorns in everyone’s backyard.
America Jumps Shark
“Prosecutors say a rural Wisconsin man blasted his TV with a shotgun after watching Bristol Palin’s Dancing with the Stars routine, sparking an all-night standoff with a SWAT team,” AP reports.
“According to court documents, 67-year-old Steven Cowan became enraged while watching Palin dance on Monday evening. He felt Palin was not a good dancer.”
Mary Schmich or Parody Schmich?
“Once-hip AOL now seems boring.”
Goose and Gander
Yes, but how much does Stella Foster make?
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For that matter, let’s see news organizations practice the transparency they demand in others and post all their salaries.
DQ Treat
“The first Dairy Queen store received local landmark status Tuesday, which should help people realize Joliet’s importance in the birth of the ice cream giant that today has 5,900 locations in the U.S. and 21 other countries,” the Aurora Beacon-News reports.
“Being home to the first Dairy Queen is not a well-known fact in the City of Steel and Stone.”
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No kidding. I would’ve thought the first Dairy Queen would’ve been in Minnesota, where the corporate headquarters is located. Nope.
House Shroud
“America’s housing mess came to the western part of Humboldt Park long before it hit wealthier neighborhoods, but like much of the country the crisis is apparently going nowhere,” Reuters reports.
“‘Everything is on hold here,’ said John Groene, director of the neighborhood’s branch of nonprofit lender Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago (NHS), on a tour of this predominantly black and Hispanic area. ‘And there’s no end in sight.'”
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“The housing stock in the area NHS calls West Humboldt Park consists largely of old, well-built red brick homes that would sell for large sums in Chicago’s richer areas.”
And the park totally rules.
Half As Crazy
“Four Loko Maker Will Cut Caffeine From Product.”
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So just Two Loko.
The Chicago Way
“Many fans of the Sunset Strip feel that the city of West Hollywood is turning its back on Tower Records as if it was its mistress,” Jerome Cleary writes in a press release.
“Twenty-four-year resident, Jerome Cleary remarked: ‘Allowing the Tower Records Store on the Sunset Strip to disappear would be equivalent to permitting the Roxy and the Whisky sites to go away too. Why must Tower Records suffer the fate of an out of town developer’s wrecking ball?'”
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“Chicago developer Sol Barket still needs city approval for the proposal to demolish the empty record store and rebuild on the site,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Thanks, Stanley Davis
Noted Chicago blues proprietor Going Home.
Gangster City
From the grief-stricken citizens of Chicago.
The Return of Elton Brand
And other NBA oddities.
The Lonely One
In Chicagoetry: Son of Some Other Guy.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Still Four Loko.
Posted on November 17, 2010