Teetering on the brink

One of the financial institutions with which we're connected is on the edge of financial disaster. Twice in the past few months Cleveland-based National City Bank (downtown Louisville building pictured above) has faced rumors of impending bankruptcy/a run on deposits. Stephanie's father first warned me about this, but today I got a "Columbus Dispatch" e-mail about the problems, as today the stock of the holding company that owns the bank went wildly up and down. National City is part of a series of mergers that included the old Columbus-based Bank of Ohio, which was owned by the Central Ohio "Titan" family the Wolfes - and thus figure obliquely in my dissertation. Grandpa Beck also has a National City account - originally out of the Westerville branch (Grandma had an account with Huntington Bank, and so - when I lived in Ohio (and Sarasota) - I banked with them.) It was for these reasons - plus National City was the only bank that had a branch in my part of the Louisville inner-city neighborhood where I lived here first - that I got a National City account- now joint with Stephanie, on top of our Florida credit union account.

Larry sounded the alarm that - with a run - we might lose our money. But deposits up to $100,000 the government insures, we don't have hardly any money in any bank account - all the more so in the National City account - which we use more or less as a shell account. (Soon after Larry warned us about this, new investors came up with money for National City, so that they were not acquired by also Cleveland-based Key Bank, which Stephanie had an accountant with in Ohio and which was once headquartered in Albany, where I temped for them.)

Stephanie's mother, Nancy, had problems with our bank. But they support my old neighborhood and have kind, helpful employees in most of the Louisville branches we frequent. So I'm hoping the bank and bank holding account hang on.

-- Perry