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In the interest of privacy protection, this article from the AP struck me as one of note.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Missouri athletics department is changing its procedures after selling a box of old cell phones that included old text messages and contact numbers.

Mike Bellman paid $190 for 25 phones. They included text messages to and from basketball coach Mike Anderson, football coach Gary Pinkel and Athletics Director Mike Alden. E-mails and contact numbers were also on the phones.

The university offered to buy them back, but Bellman said he hoped to sell them to a sports collector.

It is clearly important to sterilize old cell phones before selling or donating them.

The five member board of the FDIC voted today to put out a proposal for 30 days of public comment that would require banks to prepay $45 billion of regular quarterly assessments to replenish the FDIC Deposit Guarantee Fund. The fund is subject to a congressionally mandated minimum of 1.15% of insured deposits and has fallen to a level of .22% with the projection to go negative this quarter.

The $45 billion prepayment will include premiums for 2010-2012 and even with the prepayment, the FDIC fund is unlikely to reach the 1.15% mandated. In addition, the FDIC released forecasts today of an additional $100 billion of bank failure costs over the next 4 years, a $30 billion increase from their most recent estimate of $70 billion.

What we find interesting is that the FDIC warned banks of additional special assessments earlier this year. They are now proposing this payment as a prepayment of future premiums rather than a “special assessment”, because banks do not have reduce their earnings if it is considered a prepayment. In fact, they are permitted to consider the prepaid portion an asset. It would appear that the primary regulator of our state chartered banks is now complicit in distorting the financial condition of the industry it regulates.