Grumpy Editor

Easier loans? Bloomberg News, WSJ differ on report

So are banks making it easier to obtain loans?

Well, yes and no, depending on the news source --- which makes the situation confusing for loan seekers, finds Grumpy Editor. 

Bloomberg News, in pointing out “banks are lending the most since the recession ended in June, 2009,” said yesterday the latest Federal Reserve quarterly loan officer survey showed U.S. banks “continued to report having eased their lending standards across most loan types over the past three months.” 

Bloomberg noted banks cited “stronger demand for auto and credit card loans.” 

Bloomberg also quoted an investment strategist saying, “banks are lending, people are borrowing, housing prices are going up and a sense of normality is returning.” 

Sounds encouraging.

But then The Wall Street Journal, working off the same Fed survey, yesterday reported “despite the increase in mortgage demand, lenders were keeping standards tight for mortgage borrowers, as well as for small business loans.” 

The Journal added that among loan officers surveyed, 93 percent said standards for approving mortgages to those with strong credit “were unchanged from the prior quarter” and 95 percent said standards for businesses with under $50 million in annual sales also were unchanged.

 

Poll: Public ranks ‘high confidence’ in press near bottom

The press still has much work to do in elevating its near bottom “confidence” ranking with the American public, notes Grumpy Editor after reviewing a new Harris Poll. 

Utilizing its Harris Confidence Index, the poll --- of those saying “a great deal of confidence” --- gives the press an 11. 

That ranks slightly above Wall Street, with a 7, and Congress, at the bottom, with 6. 

Highest press ranking in the past decade: 16 in 2002. 

Television news, meanwhile, gets 17 in the poll conducted by Harris Interactive between April 9 and 17.  That rank compares with a high of 24, also in 2002. 

So which institutions rank highest in the latest poll of 2,060 adults? 

The military tops the list with 55. 

Small business follows with 50. 

These are well ahead of third-place medicine with 34.

 

Children can continue driving tractors on family farms

Credit the Labor Department’s withdrawal of a dopey 85-page proposed rule that would have affected children doing routine duties on family farms to a report by The Daily Caller’s Paul Conner, mentions Grumpy Editor.

 The planned regulation would have drastically changed the extent to which children could work on family farms and learn valuable skills.

Editorial writers on major city newspapers --- far from rural farms --- were quiet on the development, apparently unaware of the planned rule.

As Conner explained it:  “The rule would have dramatically changed what types of chores children under the age of 16 could perform on and around American farms. It would have prohibited them from working with tobacco, operating almost all types of power-driven equipment and being employed to work with raw farm materials.”

Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.) said the proposal would “ultimately undermine the very fabric of rural America.”

The Labor Department said the decision to withdraw the rule “was made in response to thousands of comments expressing concerns about the effect of the proposed rules on small family-owned farms.”

Appearing Friday on Fox News, Sen. Jerry Moran (R., Kan.) said “farming is a family operation” and that’s where “kids learn the work ethic.”  He said 18,000 comments went to the Labor Department last week.

In a statement from his office, Moran said, “If this proposal had gone into effect, not only would the shrinking rural work force have been further reduced, and our nation’s youth deprived of valuable career training opportunities, but a way of life would have begun to disappear.”

 

Obama at Twitter event: small business taxes cut 16 times

Sailing over the heads of most reporters covering Wednesday’s televised Twitter forum from the White House, President Barack Obama again trumpeted, “We have provided at least 16 tax cuts to small businesses” in response to a “where are the jobs” tweet from House Speaker John Boehner, observes Grumpy Editor.

The “16 tax cuts to small businesses” boast has been mentioned for months and few reporters ask what they are.

Going back to last fall, an Oct. 30 New York Times blog by Robb Mandelbaum (who did ask) listed these “tax cuts,” as provided by the White House.

• A new small-business health-care tax credit. 

• A new tax credit for hiring unemployed workers. 

• Bonus depreciation tax incentives to support new investment. 

• 75 percent exclusion of small business capital gains. 

• Expansion of limits on small business expensing. 

• Five-year carryback of net operating losses. 

• Reduction of the built-in gains holding period for small businesses from 10 to seven years to allow small business greater flexibility in their investments. 

• Temporary small business estimated tax payment relief to allow small businesses to keep needed cash on hand. 

• Zero capital gains taxes on key investments in small businesses. 

• The highest small business expensing limit ever –- up to $500,000. 

• An extension of 50-percent bonus depreciation. 

• A new deduction for health care expenses for the self-employed.

• Tax relief and simplification for cell-phone deductions. 

• An increase in the deduction for entrepreneurs’ start-up expenses. 

• A five-year carryback of general business credits. 

• Limitations on penalties for errors in tax reporting that disproportionately affect small business. 

Yes, there are 16.  But media should ask how many entrepreneurs and small businesses --- such as beauty salon operators, dentists and printers --- are seeing improved bottom lines as a result.

In this week’s Twitter session, Obama also mentioned the December passage of  a payroll tax cut “that put an extra $1,000 in the pockets of almost every single American.  That means they’re spending money. That means that businesses have customers.  And that has helped improve overall growth.”

That “extra $1,000 in the pockets of almost every single American” phrase didn’t raise eyebrows of media, either.

Some folks are still checking their pockets.

 

Chrysler doesn’t like 'Imported From Detroit’ on T-shirts

There’s a lot of sensitivity these days at Chrysler Group LLC regarding its Chrysler 200, one of its new vehicles being pitched heavily in television commercials, observes Grumpy Editor.

Chrysler thinks “Imported From Detroit” is a clever tag line in the commercial spotlighting the midsize sedan that first aired during last month’s Super Bowl.

But the auto maker is up in arms because a small Detroit retailer is selling clothing with the same slogan.

At the same time, a negative review of the Chrysler 200 by Scott Burgess, Detroit News auto writer and journalist for 12 years, resulted in him quitting the newspaper on Wednesday after editors followed a request by an advertiser to water down his piece.

Chrysler this week filed suit against Moda Group LLC, which operates retailer Pure Detroit.  The retailer’s three stores in the Motor City are selling T-shirts and other garb featuring the “Imported from Detroit” slogan.

Chrysler wants a federal judge to halt the “Imported From Detroit” clothing sales.

A Pure Detroit attorney tells Crain’s Detroit Business that he believes Chrysler’s tag line is unenforceable.  He adds he researched the matter and finds the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has rejected trademark applications using geographic references and the “imported from” phrase.

Nevertheless, Chrysler attorneys claim the defendants, in continuing to sell the clothing, “have left Chrysler no choice but to bring this lawsuit to prevent (the retailer) from deceiving and confusing the public and harming Chrysler’s good will.”

Of course, there’s quite a difference in looks and price of the “Imported From Detroit” products.

A Pure Detroit T-shirt carries a $24 price tag.  The MSRP of the Chrysler 200 --- which weighs 3,742 pounds --- starts at $19,245.

 

Charles Schwab: Bankers just ‘sit on their money'

Bankers’ tight purse strings are at the base of many current financial problems in the U.S. and Charles R. Schwab, founder and chairman of the Charles Schwab Corp., has it right when he calls for a return to monetary normalcy, notes Grumpy Editor.

Fed policy --- resulting in socking it to job creation and smacking consumers’ savings --- should be pounded via newspaper editorials around the nation.

In an op-ed piece in the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal, Schwab cites the Federal Reserve’s near-zero interest rate experiment “is weighing on consumer and investor confidence.”

Schwab sums up the sad situation in one paragraph within his WSJ piece by pointing out small businesses that create jobs “are unable to borrow in any meaningful amounts except via 100 percent collateralized loans.”

He goes on to emphasize, “Banks continue to hold large capital bases, mostly because they have no definitive signal yet from the federal government or regulators about what their capital requirements will be.  So they take the most conservative path available --- they sit on their money.”

How much have they built up in their sturdy nests?

It comes to more than $7.5 trillion in FDIC-insured commercial banks and savings institutions’ deposits, tallies Schwab.

These funds, he adds, are “earning --- and doing --- essentially nothing.”

Images of financial institutions also are suffering from inactions.

A recent Associated Press-National Constitution Center poll finds 52 percent of those surveyed say they have little or no confidence in banks and financial firms.

Obama cites 8 small business tax cuts; promises 8 more

Grumpy Editor notes that during Friday’s press conference, in response to a question on tax cuts for business from Chip Reid, CBS News’ chief White House correspondent, President Barack Obama mentioned, “We have cut taxes for small businesses eight times during the course of the last 18 months.”

Eight tax cuts?

That certainly stirred thousands of small business owners around the nation who have heard much about tax hikes ahead.

Seeking to verify that claim, Grumpy Editor finds that timed for release on the same day (Sept. 10) of the presidential press conference, Robert Gibbs, White House press secretary, issued a fact sheet pointing out:

“In the Recovery Act and subsequent legislation in 2009 and 2010, the President signed the following eight small business tax cuts into law:

1 --- A New Small Business Health Care Tax Credit
2 --- A New Tax Credit for Hiring Unemployed Workers
3 --- Bonus Depreciation Tax Incentives to Support New Investment
4 --- Seventy Five Percent Exclusion of Small Business Capital Gains
5 --- Expansion of Limits on Small Business Expensing
6 --- Five-Year Carryback of Net Operating Losses
7 --- Reduction of the Built-In Gains Holding Period for Small   Businesses from 10 to Seven Years to Allow Small Business Greater Flexibility in Their Investments
8 --- Temporary Small Business Estimated Tax Payment Relief to Allow Small Businesses to Keep Needed Cash on Hand"

Imagine the excitement of small businesses such as florist shops, plumbers and ad agencies on learning of these eight tax cuts.

But wait.  There are more to come.

The same Sept. 10 Gibbs fact sheet also mentions (in bold face and underlined):

“The President Intends to Sign a Small Business Jobs Bill With Another Eight Tax Cuts Benefitting Millions of Small Businesses.”