"I thought all the Marxists were in the faculty dining room at Yale – they’re not," writes veteran South Jersey banker Gerard M. Banmiller, president and chief executive at 1st Colonial National Bank, Collingswood.
 

"Last week some of them were out in force in Chicago, demonstrating at the American Bankers Association Annual Meeting.  Their cover was left wing labor organizations and groups of one syllable-names (simple minds have to keep it simple).  Their common denominators were naiveté and anarchy.

"They don’t want to get it.  The ABA is an organization of community banks formed so we have a larger voice in DC.  We’re not on Washington’s speed-dial like AIG, Chase, Fannie Mae, Bank of America, Citi and Goldman Sachs.  You might remember those names - they caused the melt-down.

"We are the people that lend your employers money to grow the businesses that keep you employed. We are the people who lend your neighbors money to buy or improve their homes once they’ve proven they can pay us back.  There were no sub-prime mortgages here.

»  More Banker: Leftist protesters don't know friends from enemies

The government's war on identity theft has been put off again.

"At the request of Members of Congress, the Federal Trade Commission is delaying enforcement of the 'Red Flags' Rule [previously scheduled to take effect Nov. 1] until June 1, 2010, for financial institutions and creditors subject to enforcement by the FTC," the FTC said Friday here. Latest of several postponements.

"The Rule was promulgated under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act" in which Congress ordered the FTC "to develop regulations requiring 'creditors' and 'financial institutions' to address the risk of identity theft," which may mean huge increases in liability and security expense for any business that handles company data.

The Red Flags Rule, says FTC, would force firms to "develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs to help identify, detect, and respond to patterns, practices, or specific activities – known as 'red flags' " which might be signs someone unauthorized might have access to customer data at that business.

The last-minute delay, says James E. Kurack Jr., partner at Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, "was requested by members of Congress who are currently considering a bill which would exempt health care providers and accounting practices with twenty or fewer employees from complying with the Rule.  That bill passed unanimously in the House and is now being considered in the Senate."

It also came, as the FTC put it, the same day "the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that the FTC may not apply the Red Flags Rule to attorneys." Lawyers are exempt, nice for them! Case is US District Curt for the District of Columbia, 09-1636, Kurack says.

More from FTC (corrected): http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/redflags.shtm

"The war is over. The subscription model has won," writes Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC analyst Craig Moffett.

"Free video site Joost is already gone and forgotten... Even before Comcast began its dalliance with NBC Universal, there were reports that Hulu [which NBCU co-owns] was preparing to move to a subscription model... Newspapers are scrambling to put their content behind pay walls...

"The triumph of the pay model isn't just on the Internet. The 'free' model for broadcast TV is also dying" as the old mass market audience breaks up in a hundred or ten thousand little specialized markets.

"The broadcast networks are on their way to becoming cable networks... There is talk of Fox asking for $1 per subscriber per month." Meanwhile cable companies are readying their usual annual increases in many markets, while Verizon "recently raised its FiOS price by 21%" to $58/month for "Premier" service.

"But there's a problem. Where exactly is all this subscription revenue going to come from?" Since consumers are broke, more or less. Maybe media companies "haven't gotten the Recession memo."

»  More Free video and Internet is doomed: report

"An obscure company whose main expertise is jails is key financial advisor to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission in their application to the Feds for permission to toll I-80," claims TollRoadNews.com here.

"The 41 page analysis 'Annex B: Financial Valuation of Proposed Rentals for Interstate 80' is authored by an entity titled 'Provident Capital Advisors LLC, Baton Rouge, Louisiana (PCA) part of Provident Resources Group of Baton Rouge, Louisiana (PRG).'" Read it here (starts Page 40)

It conludes, "'We believe the level of Rent (the PTC would pay the state for I-80) is a valid operating cost of I-80 and should be an eligible use of toll revenues under the ISRRPP (federal law on tolling interstates.)'

"PRG operates out of two residential houses in the Mississippi delta town of Baton Rouge LA. Its main activity seems to be operation of 14 jails called 'correctional facilities' in Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Georgia, Alaska, North Carolina and Pennsylvania... PRG also do student and oldies' housing, and some regular housing. They say they are getting into healthcare." 

»  More PA Turnpike paid 'obscure' advisor for I-80 plan: report

Updated: Tasty Baking Co. says sales rose 1.8% in the third quarter as it moved production of fruit and custard pies from its 87-year-old Hunting Park bakery to its new, automated plant at the old Navy Yard in South Philadelphia. Third-quarter earnings statement here. 

Analyst Mitchell Pinheiro at Janney Montgomery Scott had predicted higher sales growth of around 5%. He blamed the difference on lower vending-machine sales; also noted the South Philly plant is now two months ahead of schedule.

Tasty Ceo Charles Pizzi says Krimpets and other baked Tastykakes will move to South Philly by next June. To hear Pizzi tell more, listen to Tasty's quarterly conference call at 11 a.m. http://www.tastykake.com , go to "Investors", go to "Webcasts & Presentations"

It's not completely terrible that foreign-owned companies are getting most of the money from a $1 billion U.S. subsidy for wind and other alternative power generation. At least these companies have been creating U.S. jobs. Right?

But it does make people go "Hmm" to learn the subsidies have no strings attached. They're rewards, not incentives. Wouldn't it be better to require that they reinvest that cash here in the U.S. before pocketing profits? That's what the Investigative Reporting Workshop, Washington, DC, asks in its wind-subsidy project, "Blown Away", here.

The story cites the admission by a Treasury official that "there are no restrictions on the use of the funds" by the companies that collect them. Which is what I reported in my Sept. 2 column and the previous day's blog.

The Workshop's story links a recording of me asking Treasury, "You mean they can do anything they want with this money?" Yes. They can. Though the government hopes they'll use it to build more "sustainable" electric systems here in the U.S.

While "most of the major job losses have already occurred," Brandywine Realty Trust ceo Jerry Sweeney told investors after reporting earnings, "we do expect additional job losses" in the Philadelphia area "to impact the professional and business service sectors" next year.

Looks a little better in Brandywine's other markets - Washington DC and Austin - where government jobs rule.

That means "lower absorption and leasing activity levels along with corresponding continued pressure on rental levels," Sweeney added. And it's become harder than usual to predict whether tenants are going to keep their space next year. Full transcript via Financial Times' SeekingAlpha.com here.

A back-to-back Philadelphia World Series championship would be "the worst omen for the economy if history repeats itself," says Bloomberg News here, citing West Chester-based Moody's Economy.com analyst Ryan Sweet and recalling the old Philadelphia A's 1929 and 1930 performance that ushered in the Great Depression.

The US Treasury has passed out another $5 billion in "New Markets Tax Credits" to investors who back projects that banks apparently can't or won't finance on the cheap. The annual progarm has been juiced this year by an extra $1.5 billion in federal Recovery Act funds.

List of the developers who'll be awarding the credits to their private-sector investors here. Locally, includes:

- $90 million for the Reinvestment Fund (TRF), a Philadelphia-based entity that finances supermarkets, publicly-funded charter schools, and "other commercial real estate assets" in the New Jersey-Washington corridor;

- $15 million for "Reading's Future Inc.," a Reading-based developer, controlled by Boscov's Department Stores Inc.,  that builds or acquires stores, offices and homes.