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STRANGE noises are emanating from America's banking industry as it undergoes its post-crisis makeover. Wall Street's titans are rejoicing at repaying the money lent to them by the government at the height of the crisis late last year. As much as $68 billion is coming back to the US Treasury from the likes of JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, which don't need it and hated the pay restrictions that came with it.
Meanwhile, from Wichita, Kansas, comes the yee-haw of Redneck Bank, "where bankin's funner", an extreme reaction by the reputable Bank of the Wichitas to public hostility to banks.
The bank's symbol is a whinnying nag, who appears on its website saying things like "I like oats and feed, government bailouts I don't need", "Don't get saddled with stiff-necked bankers" and "All y'all with horse sense start bankin' here today."
GMAC Bank, once part of General Motors and a huge subprime lender, has remade itself as Ally Bank, "a better kind of bank", with the dubious promise: "We make money with you, not off you."
All of this is part of a push by the banking industry to dissuade Washington from waves of new regulation, and also to regain public trust. JPMorgan chairman Jamie Dimon told The New York Times this week "it's time for you to stop vilifying all bankers and banks".
The newspaper also reported a tart exchange between Larry Summers, President Obama's chief economic adviser, and Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs. Summers recently told a group of bank chiefs that "the financial system used to be seen as a positive asset to the United States", but was no longer. Blankfein replied, "Well, tell us, Larry when was that golden era? Was it 1954? Was it 1927?"
Blankfein was right to say that the banking industry has rarely been loved. But it wasn't always loathed to the degree it is today.
RUPERT MURDOCH is trying to shift his Long Island estate in one of the worst property markets on record. Rosehearty has 11 bedrooms, a tennis court and its own stretch of beach. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been renting it for the past few months while filming in the area. The asking price is $12.8 million. But in this market, make an offer.
AMERICAN supermarkets report that shoppers are buying less meat and more pasta. As Wal-Mart's head of merchandising put it: "We're seeing a movement away from protein into carbohydrates. It stretches the dollar a lot further."
