Protecting the small-business-destroying Dodd-Frank Act seems to be a major goal of prominent Democrats.
Simply exempting small banks from the ravages of Dodd-Frank would make a major difference, but then the big banks (the ones that can contribute generously to campaigns and pay $250K for “speaker fees”) would complain.
As a result of Dodd-Frank, fully half of the small banks in our country have not been able to survive; those were the small banks that have never been a thre…at to our economy and that actually made loans to small businesses. One of the surviving small banks in our area has had their expenses go up by $200K per year and can no longer loan to the 70% of the customers they were previously able to fund. As but one example of the regulatory insanity, this bank had no previous history of problem loans but they now must have every loan approved by an independent outside agency. They also had to rid the bank of nonconforming loans, even though those loans had always been paid on time and were secured by major equity. Nonconforming loans meant the holder did not have an income -to-expense ration of at least 1.25.
The ravages of Dodd-Frank continue. In the last month I have personally heard of two lines of credit that were terminated because the investor did not have the right income to expense ratio even though all payments were on time. How it is possible to remain oblivious to the problem is difficult to comprehend, but Maxine Waters is a prime example of why solving the problem will be especially difficult.
At least she does not pretend she will cooperate in any way.
**Gary A. Howie MSc, PhD** is business owner/rancher and a Life & Liberty News contributor
