Your bad dream may happen yet, Mr Bog

The bond market has been killed in the past week and people are getting nervous (must be slow learners) about muni bonds.

Gee, all that borrowed money and we still need to fill potholes, fix schools ($500M) and gte the sewers working.

Go by streetcar - Its free.

Only this time they are actually going to be passing out tarps.

How big a gambler are you?

The stock market is all about gambling, not investing.

Is it time to short sell BoA stock?

Guess I'd better start making my credit card payments.

I thought the City of Portland had "buy local" requirements - whatever happened to doing business with banks located here in Portland...

Umpqua Bank
Albina Community Bank
And I'd even throw in U.S. Bank which has a very sizable corporate presence in Portland, followed by Wells Fargo.

What does BofA have in Portland besides branches?

Required reading on the subject. No one knows what's on the banks's balance sheets.

"What does BofA have in Portland besides branches"

The ability to find buyers for several $100M worth of bonds if not able to play the principal in the transaction. Local banks like Umpqua just aren't set up to handle this.

WF could, but they're about as local as is BofA (both SF).

Umpqua recently tried to get some business in city borrowing. Here's how it turned out.

Steve -

BoA hasn't been HQ'd in SF for many many many years.

BoA is run from Charlotte, NC.

Just like USBank was wanted for its name, and is a Minneapolis bank now, BoA 's biggest asset was the name.

When interstate banking was allowed through the one bank holding company mechanism back in the day, both BoA and USBank had tremendous marketing clout because of their perceived "nationwide" name marketability.

Bank of America (BA) bought out my credit card company and I should have cut up my credit card at that moment.

There were unauthorized charges on my card and I could not get anyone at BA to deal with them. All they do is add about 14% interest compounded monthly to my balance to make a $100 charge (in dispute) over $500 in a few months.

It seems like anybody can make up a bill and send it to somebody and the poor recipient is in for a costly ride even if the recipient it totally in the right.

I've hired a lawyer to help resolve this matter. I can't think of anything else to do. Any suggestions?

Fiscal slight of hand only goes so far. You need to increase revenue or decrease spending or both if you want to stay solvent, as a business or a government. If you are not willing to decrease spending and if you are not willing to raise revenue all that is left is to borrow. And if you cannot meet your debt obligations you go bankrupt. There does not seem to be much political will to cut spending or raise taxes. Muni's might be tax free but it is going to cost people a gob of dough when they go bust.

What we really need a full-body bank scan. My guess is these guys are all zombies and are coming to get ya!