[The Baltimore Sun] My 4-year-old son, Sam, has a big problem in school. He loves it. He is interested. He is cared for. He has fun. He is learning. Yes, his class is too good. So what will he think years from now — while staring out the window of a class that is too...
[The Baltimore Sun] Twenty minutes. In just 20 minutes — less than the length of a long coffee break — legislators in Annapolis had heard enough from the state’s top insurance regulator regarding his disturbing concerns about the state’s top health insurer. Blue Cross...
[The Baltimore Sun] This year’s steep drop in interest rates might have borrowers rejoicing, but it has small community bankers scrambling. Friday’s move by the Federal Reserve to reduce the discount rate — the amount banks are charged to borrow money — to 3.5 percent...
[The Baltimore Sun] Top administration officials asked bank and thrift examiners yesterday to extend the benefit of the doubt and use common sense when working with the financial institutions that are essential for fueling an economic recovery. While gently chiding...
[The Baltimore Sun] Everything about it is immense. The numbers. The task. The risk. The financial disasters that gave it birth. It is a nearly $2 billion pile of repossessed properties, scuttled projects, bad loans, empty buildings and abandoned hopes. And everyone —...
[The Baltimore Sun] He never knew the Mounties were watching. The bald, bearded man in the tweed jacket followed his weekly circuit through Windsor, Ontario. He stopped at the National Bank of Canada, walked two blocks to the Royal Bank of Canada and then caught a bus...
[The Baltimore Sun] It’s a conspiracy theorist’s dream come true. A popular leader is forcibly removed and tens of thousands of people are outraged. Demanding the leader’s return, the crowds swell throughout the land. Shock has turned to anger. The will of a united...
For a while, Alan Penniman Hoblitzell Jr. saw the future earlier and clearer than most. As tumultuous changes loomed in the banking industry during the 1980s, he foresaw only two roles for mid-sized banks like his Maryland National. Swallow or be swallowed. Mr....
[The Baltimore Sun] Alfred Lerner can make it sound so easy. Borrow money from depositors at one price. Lend it to others at a higher price. And make a profit from the difference. Nothing tricky, nothing mysterious, said the 57-year-old investor from Cleveland as he...
[The Baltimore Sun] Bill Marriott has a nightmare. A man loses a $40 bottle of cologne at a Marriott hotel. He calls the front desk. The assistant manager says he is not authorized to reimburse him. The customer contacts the hotel manager, then a company vice...
[The Baltimore Sun] David and Isaac Blech like to start companies. In fact, in the past eight years, they have started companies nearly as often as many people have gone to the dentist: about once a year. Still, though Wall Street certainly knows them, the Blechs are...