Still No Answers

Remember the NCUA taxi debacle?

It seems like a century ago when the agency unloaded an undisclosed number of New York City taxi medallions to Marblegate Asset Management for an undisclosed amount of money.

And it seems like a decade ago when I wrote about how the agency refused to answer most questions about the sale and instead told me to file a request for agency records under the Freedom of Information Act.

I dutifully filed that request. And patiently (OK, maybe not so patiently) waited.

And last month, the NCUA responded. And the response told me nothing more than I already knew.

Here’s a portion of the agency’s letter: “Your request is granted in part. We have attached three full pages of the responsive agency records. There are 314 other pages, withheld in full.”

Those withheld pages included things like: How money taxi medallions were sold and for how much?

On what basis did the NCUA, a federal agency, decide to use a secret process to award a bid that involved hundreds of billions of dollars?

The agency gave a few reasons why it considers the answers to such questions to be classified.

For some of the material, the NCUA’s FOIA office said documents were exempt in an effort to protect “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained by a person that is privileged or confidential.”

Other documents were exempt from public view because they were memoranda or letters, which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency.

And some documents were exempt because they protected “matters that are contained in or related to examination, operating or condition reports prepared by, on behalf of or for the use of an agency responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions.”

Now, I’m not a lawyer (some would say I’m barely a journalist), but it seems to me that the agency should be subject to some level of accountability here.

The taxi medallion loan debacle already has cost the NCUA Share Insurance Fund almost $800 million.

In the broad scheme of the coronavirus crisis, the taxi debacle seems really small.

Still, it seems like the agency should have to answer questions like that.

Doesn’t it?

Lots of Credit

In these hard times, people may be having trouble obtaining new credit.

But that hasn’t hit trade groups asking Congress and the Trump Administration for provisions in law or regulations that they say will help the average American.

Oh yeah, it might just help the trade group seeking the provision as well.

And when trade groups get something they want, they all claim credit for getting it, regardless of how many other groups were seeking the same thing.

One small example: Financial institutions were seeking a rule change that would allow, under all circumstances, consumers to make more than six transactions from their savings account each month.

They argued that the so-called Regulation D keeps folks from immediately obtaining money from their savings accounts.

The Federal Reserve recently agreed to waive Reg D for a while.

Trade groups lined up to pat themselves on the back.

Here’s what CUNA had to say in a statement: “CUNA/League Advocacy results in Fed removal of Reg D account transfer limit.”

Wow, CUNA’s got a lot of power, right?

Well, here’s what NAFCU had to say about the rule change: “Fed heeds NAFCU’s call to eliminate Reg D transaction limit.”

Of course, if credit unions take credit for accomplishing something, can the bankers be far behind?

Nope.

When the Fed announcement was made, the Independent Community Bankers of America issued a statement that in part said, “In a letter to the Fed last month and in follow-up meetings, ICBA and community bankers advocated suspending the Reg D restrictions for at least 12 months due to the COVID-19 emergency.”

Books, Books and More Books

Supposedly people aren’t buying books anymore. They’re either using Nooks or Kindles or just not reading.

But you couldn’t tell it based on the television interviews with newsmakers stuck at home during the coronavirus crisis.

It seemed like every talking head being interviewed sat in front of a bookcase with hundreds of books on them. They didn’t sound so smart, but they sure had a lot of books, so they must be brilliant, right?

And it wasn’t just the intellectual folks.

Most of the time you couldn’t see the titles of the books. But they were there. By the hundreds.

Somebody bought them.

Whether they’ve read them is another story.

For instance, some people may buy a house with wall-to-wall bookcases. And they might hate reading.

My favorite bookstore in the world, The Strand in Manhattan, has a solution for such problems (at least they did until the coronavirus forced them to temporarily close).

Books by the Foot.

You could order books by their color or by their style.

Another company, Booth & Williams, offers similar services. You can buy a foot of books with “Modern Blue Jay” spines. And so on.

So maybe those talking heads on TV weren’t so smart after all.

While we’re on the subject of social distancing, isn’t it sad that the decision of whether to wear a face mask has become a political statement?

At Least

There are no silver linings in the coronavirus crisis. But I’ll just leave you with this:

At least the Baltimore Orioles haven’t lost any games yet.

Stay safe, folks.

David Baumann is a correspondent-at-large for CU Times. He can be reached at dbaumann@cutimes.com.