Main Street Bank, Kingwood, Texas, to Go Out of Business

What's interesting about this is that the bank chairman, Thomas Depping, cites strangulating regulation as driving him from the market. See Wall Street Journal, "Fed Up: A Texas Bank Is Calling It Quits":

Main Street Bank lends most of its money to small businesses and is earning decent profits. But the Kingwood, Texas, bank is about to get out of the banking business.



In an extreme example of the frustration felt by many bankers as regulators toughen their oversight of the nation's financial institutions, Main Street's chairman, Thomas Depping, is expected to announce Wednesday that the 27-year-old bank will surrender its banking charter and sell its four branches to a nearby bank.

Mr. Depping plans to set up a new lender that will operate beyond the reach of banking regulators—and the deposit-insurance safety net. Backed by the private investment firm of Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul Allen, the company won't be able to call itself a bank, but it will be able to do business the way Mr. Depping wants.



"The regulatory environment makes it very difficult to do what we do," says Mr. Depping, who last summer saw his bank hit with an enforcement order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Continue reading.



If you're reading Mark Steyn's After America, this story is yet another eerie example, found in the book, of the kind of stifling anti-American regulatory burdens shutting down innovation and growth in this country. Perhaps Depping will do better in his new venture, but the move to shutter the bank is an real indictment of job-killing government oversight.

Kevin Williamson's Guide to Socialism

Have you read his book? I've read some longer snippets, but held off going further for now, mainly because I think he's taken a public goods approach and applied it broadly to any economic situation where states supplant markets. Socialism in this sense isn't necessarily Marxism, but that's all I can say until I finish it. You get the gist of it at the clip, in any case:

SEC Launches Investigation Into Facebook Deal

The main story's at WSJ, "Facebook Deal Spurs Inquiry." (Added: Now a Memeorandum thread.)

But also the fascinating background at LAT, "Facebook's Cash Infusion Whets Appetite of Investors: The $500-million Investment from Goldman Sachs and Digital Sky Technologies Heightens Pressure on the Social Network to Go Public. But Facebook Executives Are in No Hurry":

What's driving the Facebook derby? The massive yet unproven moneymaking potential of the world's most popular social networking site, which boasts more than 500 million users. The company has raised nearly $1 billion without tapping the public markets, creating pent-up investor demand for the next big Internet IPO. The anticipation is similar to the frenzy surrounding the 2004 initial public offering of Google, the world's most popular search engine. Google raised $25 million before going public.

"There's this expectation that just like Google went through the roof, Facebook will too," UC Berkeley law professor Robert Bartlett said.

Facebook is the undisputed — and seemingly invincible — leader in social networking, the latest trend to grab eyeballs and dollars on the Web. Seven years ago, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg came up with a new way for college students to connect, sparking an online revolution in the process. Now the billionaire digital age mogul talks boldly of doubling Facebook's users to 1 billion. There are no guarantees that Facebook won't stumble like News Corp.'s MySpace before it, but the money continues to pour in.

Facebook's explosive popularity got a boost last year with the movie "The Social Network." At the time, Thiel tried to capture the exuberance in an interview with The Times.

"Great consumer companies grow fast, and this is definitely one of the greatest consumer companies in all of history," he said. "It is culturally really important, and it represents a permanent shift, sort of like television or radio if they were invented by a few people in one company. That it's a consumer-facing company makes it very interesting to people. People can relate to it. People have ideas of what it should do different or better. It's somewhat of a unique thing. There's a lot of intensity surrounding it."

Facebook owes its status to its increasing ubiquity. It has become the place people go to find their friends, sort of like a modern-day phone book. While Facebook quickly has captured the attention — surpassing Google as the most visited website in 2010, according to Internet analytics firm Experian Hitwise — it has been slower to tap revenue streams such as advertising, payment systems and e-commerce. But some advertisers are bullish on its prospects.

"It's the real deal," Michael Lynton, chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment, said in an interview late last year.

RTWT.

Don't Text and Drive

At Mashable, "AT&T Documentary Takes on Texting-While-Driving."

I don't text and drive. I hate that others do. Should the state prohibit it? Of course, but check with the anarcho-commies like JBW for the "nanny state" whining (and the stoned Reason-oids as well, unfortunately).

Melanie Phillips on Michael Coren

Via Blazing Cat Fur:

Proposed Cigarette Product Warning Labels

At the FDA (and at WaPo):

Commentary at Weasel Zippers, "Nanny State Gone Wild – New Graphic Cigarette Warnings From the FDA."



I don't know. Maybe some folks are so stupid they actually need these warnings. Besides, what would folks like egghead JBW do without some Nanny Statism to gripe about? Get rid of warning labels and marijuana laws in one fell swoop!! Then everyone would have equal opportunity to death!



Added: At Doug Ross, "The FDA's 10 Most Terrifying Proposed Cigarette Warning Labels."