By Antonio D. French
Filed Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 6:01 AM
Gov. Matt Blunt has signed a new law that effectively bans Wal-Mart from opening a bank in Missouri. Labels: Governor
The bill bars industrial loan companies from having any deposit or loan office or bank branches in Missouri. Wal-Mart recently applied to run an industrial bank in Utah. Instead of opening branch banks or granting loans to consumers, Wal-Mart executives have said the mega-company wants to charter a bank just to handle the $140 million credit, debit and electronic check payments that the company processes yearly, which could save it millions of dollars in fees.
3 Comments:
Politics does make strange bedfellows. Awhile back Robert Reich editorialized on an NPR show, Marketplace or All Things Considered, that it would be a good idea if Wal-Mart got into personal banking. One reason was that Wal-Mart knows how to lower prices and check return fees and the like would be less for their customers, if not go down industry wide.
Reich further opined that the big banks would not be hurt much by Wal-Mart as a bank. Credit unions? Maybe. There was a potential for the 'un-banked' to start saving though.
7/13/2006 9:05 AM
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7/13/2006 10:28 AM
Its amazing, the hypocrisy in the two parties.
Republicans are supposed to be anti-regulation, and for small government, yet they are trying to regulate Gambling on the Internet, Porn, Piracy, voting, and now Wal-Mart. Basically, if there is a moral issue, it should be regulated to protect America! Without moral regulation, Americans will succumb to incest, bestiality, and smoking crack. Yes, morally based government regulation is the only institution protecting the morality of America!
Furthermore, the Republican controlled Congress is definitely a friend to subsidy, whether corporate welfare, or tax cuts. The six years Bush has been in office, we have seen billions spent on Iraq. I believe his spending surpassed LBJ during Vietnam.
Democrats are basically ineffectual, and are still touting the minimum wage, pro-union stance, when they themselves are quite rich, and would gain much if organized labor, and employee rights were removed. Do they honestly care about the working class, beyond his vote at the polls? Do they actually believe that redistrobution of wealth will remove poverty, crime, and our social inequalities? Are they simply playing on Americas idealistic dream of utopia?
I think the best solution the American people can try to get is some level of honesty, starting at the local level.
Voters should ask that politicians voice their ideology, and stick with it. Electing a official who takes position X, then switches to Y is problematic. Obviously compromise must occur, however consistent contradictions is ridiculous. President Bush, during the 2004 election debate at Washington University, touted Bi-Lateral talks with North Korea as being the only effective solution. However, now he says the 6 Party talks are the best solution. If I remember, John Kerry was a big proponent of the 6 Party Talks.
Whats worse is those that hide their true affiliations, like Diero Gambaro, the Elephant who thinks hes a Jackass. His blatantly obvious Republican agenda is a malicious attempt at trickery, and this will not fool anyone. Diero should be honest and run on a Republican Ticket. A strong republican candidate, with a lot of money, might actually put up a good fight. Eventhough I do not agree with many of the GOP's Policy decisions, it would be nice to see the two party system come back to St. Louis. Perhaps democrats would stop the infighting.
Matt Blunt, who arguably is one of the worst governors in history, who cut health care is Missouri, and probably supports the proposed increase of the cigarette tax, which replaces this lack of health care, is now regulating Wal-Mart. Perhaps he has a moral issue with Wal-Mart? If you view the 2004 GOP Party Platform, you will see 61 instances of "Business" being mentioned. Of course the context in which business appears is pro-business. It is great to see that Governor Blunt is inconsistent with his party's platform. Maybe the GOP should ammend the platform with "pro-business except..." and "small government sometimes..."
7/13/2006 10:36 AM
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