Homebuilders in St. Louis have a two-year oversupply of ready-to-build lots, banker David Kemper says, so two years is a good estimate of how long the housing downturn will last here. Kemper, chief executive of Commerce Bancshares, spoke this morning…

William Donius, who resigned over the weekend as chief executive of Pulaski Financial, will have a little extra cash as he goes off to pursue his “bucket list.” (That phrase, apparently, refers to things he wants to accomplish before he kicks the…

Wachovia’s latest news – which includes a dividend cut and a $393 million first-quarter loss — adds to the pain for former A.G. Edwards shareholders. When the venerable St. Louis brokerage announced last May 30 that it was selling out to the North…

With the closing of tiny Hume Bank on Friday, Missouri has the dubious honor of being at the leading edge of what some folks think will be a wave of bank failures. Only two FDIC-insured banks have closed this year, and the…

Peter Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute has written a thought-provoking piece contrasting the banking industry’s recent problems with the relatively strong performance of hedge funds.

In Wallison’s opinion, the difference has much to do with the way banks are…

A reader named Pat emails me with a question that’s timely, given the current bidding war for bank deposits:

Would you consider doing a column on what considerations the average person should use in deciding where to purchase CDs and…

Stifel Financial’s CEO, Ron Kruszewski, told me a few months ago that his firm’s biggest need was to have some sort of link with a commercial bank. This morning, he filled that need by announcing the acquisition of First Service Financial, a small…