First I have acknowledge the “spirit” that controls my blog. She lives in Minneapolis. She is the “period at the end of the sentence” marking the end of our immediate family. Grasshopper No.1 opened the family saga in 1960 and the birth of Grasshopper No.5 ended it. Grasshopper No.5 had a birthday yesterday. I told her she now is one third the age Nana was when she passed away. No.5 has two thirds of her life in front of her. I will not give her age but 1977 is memorable. Happy Birthday No.5.
I finally have a weekend where I can “vegetate on the couch”. We have been going to UW Badger games or traveling throughout Minnesota on recent weekends. The highlight will be when the Favre Circus invades Lambeau on Sunday night. No phone calls please.
Now “follow the clues”. My local M&I Bank sent me a notice of new fees covering checking accounts. It seems that unless I carry $5,000 minimum balance in my checking account, I will incur a $25 per month administrative fee. My quick math says that suddenly I need $300 per year to write checks. Well, I’ve got a news alert! It ain’t going to happen. Our credit union has a pretty good deal. So clue number one is my checking account rates are going up suggesting M&I is having trouble making money through traditional ways.
Clue No.2 is that M&I reported losing only $128 million last quarter. Relax. That is better than the $256 million loss from the same period last year. Hmmmm! The bank is losing money because of bad management and I incur new fees. This isn’t rocket science folks.
Clue No.3 is that Chairman of the Board of M&I is retiring suddenly but will remain on the Board. That is another way to move an ineffective leader out of the way. There is tension in the executive ranks. So the Chairman will retire, get his big retirement package and my checking account fees are going up. Yep, there is definitely a connection.
Clue No.4 is that a recent press release acknowledges that M&I expanded outside it’s sphere of comfort by buying banks in Florida and Arizona. Guess where the biggest exposure to losses due to poor real estate investments exist. By golly, it happens to be Florida and Arizona. So the “brain trust” in the executive row positioned the Bank for big losses. Do you think those decisions affected my checking account?
M&I Bank isn’t the only financial institution struggling to return to profitability. I just don’t think they should “stick it to the little guy” (that is me). The lesson Grasshoppers is to stay vilgilant concerning charges associated with your banks, credit unions and credit card companies. They are planning to get deeper into your pockets.
Love,
Dad