It’s been a while since I’ve written about  the economic “fiasco” we’ve come to know as New Frontier Bank.  The Denver Post published a lengthy, two-part investigative piece on the billion dollar failed bank.  (Part 1 and Part 2)

The Post investigation found:

• With government inspections looming, the bank’s loan officers rewrote terms of delinquent loans, disguising steady asset deterioration, according to a former board member and records.

• New Frontier Bank executives staved off an effort by the bank’s federal regulator, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., to ban one of its high-performing loan officers accused of fraud at a previous bank. Later, that officer was convicted of theft for stealing deposits at New Frontier.

• The bank’s board authorized a $400,000 payment to one of its members whose used-car business was in financial trouble, sources said, despite a state law barring preferential treatment for bank insiders.

• After regulators told New Frontier in 2008 it needed to raise cash, bankers issued loans to at least a dozen borrowers who in turn agreed to buy stock in the bank. Such transactions can be illegal if coercion is proved.

Perhaps most important is this line:  “A federal probe into potential fraud at New Frontier is underway by the Justice Department.”  This is good news.  Taxpayers, northern Colorado residents and small businesses would like to know if we are the only ones who will have to pay the price for Colorado’s largest bank failure.

Taxpayers in Greeley will be happy to know that the city has placed online a wealth on information. On the city’s new transparency page visitors will find everything from the employee pay schedule to financial reports including the check registry.   The city even included a link with information on where to direct an open records request.

City Manager Roy Otto made a good point in a prepared press release.  He said, “During and after the last election cycle City Council members noted that they could not find this type of information on the City’s website. In fact, the information was there, it was just difficult to find.”  

Otto is correct.  Many governments provide information but it is difficult to find.  Making it easier to access is a large component in transparency.

Now, let’s hope Greeley Evans School District 6 be next.

As reported in COST, another blog to which I contribute, the Greeley Evans District 6 school board still disrespects taxpayers.  It recently defeated a modest transparency proposal from new school board member Brett Reese.  Reese asked that every school district transaction over $1000 be posted online for taxpayers to see.  D6 members Judy Kron, Mark Hinze and Linda Trimberger voted against.  That means Reese, Doug Kershaw and Bob Stack voted in favor.

But wait!  Bob Stack? He has a well-documented history of opposition to transparency.  In comments on the Greeley Report, Reese revealed his theory about why Stack voted yes.

I also quietly scribbled a note to my neighbor, Bob Stack after the vote, “nice job saving your skin”.  Work session he voted against it, in public, he voted for it. Another flip-flopper?

Make some popcorn and pull up a chair.  School board meetings have become “Must See TV.”

Veronisque De Rugy, senior research fellow with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and my newest hero, warns in her latest article, “Starting in 2012, the cost of the debt as a percentage of GDP will explode from a mere 1.8 percent of GDP to more than 30 percent of GDP in 2082.”

She goes on to explain what this means for her daughter Juliette:

To give you an idea of what this means, if I get to retire at 65, in 2035, the cost of debt will have more than tripled from 1.8 to 7.5 percent of GDP. And by the time my daughter Juliette retires, in 2070 (assuming that she is still allowed to retire at 65) the cost of the debt will have reached 23.8 percent.

What does that mean in dollars?

To put these numbers in perspective, Edmund Andrews writes in the New York Times that this means an additional $500 billion a year in interest payments in less than 10 years, which is ‘more than the combined federal budgets this year for education, energy, homeland security, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.’

If you are worried about your child’s future, please get MAD and join Mothers Against Debt.  Be on the lookout for announcement from MAD.

Check out the Big Red Calculator, the only calculator that accommodates trillions and the official calculator of MAD.

In an article that reads more like a proposal for a Saturday Night Live skit, the Telegraphreports that the Copenhagen climate summit “will create a total of 41,000 tonnes of ‘carbon dioxide equivalent’, equal to the amount produced over the same period by a city the size of Middlesbrough.”

That’s the price the world will have to pay because the 15,000 summit attendees require 1200 limos and 140 private plans, along with caviar and free sex. 

I give them credit for superior denial skills.  In the face of Climategate, eco-totalitarians still behave as if everything is normal.  The global community believes them and won’t be troubled by their conspicuous consumption.  These are the same people who told Michael Jackson that he was perfectly normal.

Hide information and someone somewhere will find it.  Two stories, Climategate and Ritter-inaugural fund gate, are great examples.  I’ve discussed Climategate on my show before and will discuss Ritter’s dilemma today.

Enjoy this entertaining YouTube parody of Tommy James’ “Draggin the Line” called “Hide the Decline.” Global warming alarmists and eco-totalitarians are in full panic mode over Climategate.  Maybe these “scientists” shouldn’t have let their ideology get ahead of the data!

My Independence Institute colleague Todd Shepherd explains how Governor Bill Ritter, who bragged about full transparency when problems arose with his inaugural fund, now is being less than open about the “strange method of deposits” into the account.   Tune in to News Talk 1310 KFKA at 9:30 a.m. to hear Todd Shepherd full accounting.