Like decoding the musings of muses to gain a smidgen of clarity about one's future, the comments on banking trends contained in NCB's current mid-quarter 8-K filing offers some ominous overtones regarding the mortgage banking business it conducts in Ohio and eight other states and the restructuring of National Home Equity and National City Mortgage, which are reflective of the growing crisis and credit crunch now in progress.  

In forward looking remarks, the ninth largest bank in the nation said net interest income, despite reduced margins from the second quarter to this one, anticipates net interest income to be flat. The bank with core businesses of commercial and retail banking, mortgage financing and servicing, consumer finance and asset management said the transfer of held-for-sale home equity loans into portfolio reflected difficulties in selling the products to other buyers.

With no real explanation for why it did it, NCB said it has now lumped in real estate development mortgages into commercial financing, a move that could further obfuscate the ability of industry analysts to see the full scope of the housing downturn in its service areas.

In measured language, NCB said the effect of various costs and charges associated with NHEN merging with NCM will likely result in about $160 million for the third quarter, although that won't be known until the quarter closes. It also said credit quality will remain fundamentally unchanged.

The value of residential real estate assets in which payments are no longer being made were at $236 million in August, 58 percent higher than in August 2006, according to this AP report.

The NCB data submitted today to the Secutities and Exchange Commission reflects the problems in the mortgage markets generally, said Thomas Richlovsky, National City treasurer and senior vice president, as reported by the AP. Earlier in September, the lending giant said it is laying off 1,300 workers as it remakes its mortgage business.

CHIQUITA, A COLUMBIAN HAMELT: WHAT TO DO?

The announcement today, that Cbi has been ordered by a federal court to pay $25 to settle charges it paid bribes to Columbian terrorists groups to protect its business and its employees from harm, was indeed bad news, but the upside of the plea deal reached with federal prosecutors was that not one filed was charged against any of the 10 company executives allegedly involved in the bribery case.

The business whose is stylized version of a Latin lady wearing a basket of fruit" as a headdress says in its on its Website that "Corporate Responsibility at Chiquita is an integral part of our global business strategy. It commits us to operate in a socially responsible way everywhere we do business, fairly balancing the needs and concerns of our various stakeholders" and that its "Code of Conduct...establishes clear standards for behavior that is ethical, legal, socially responsible, and in accordance with Company policy.

But what the company did and what it was found guilty of contradicts the good words it lauds in its corporate responsibility section. Aguirre said the company was forced into the murky waters between ethics and law and keeping their workers safe from violence by right-wing paramilitary terrorists groups that neither the central government of Columbia nor its army could keep in check.

Indeed, Aguirre said the problem was not unique to Cbi and that a common practice for the paramilitary groups is to target businesses for extortion and to terrorize the Columbian people by kidnappings and murder. Protection payments, Aguirre and his colleagues concluded, were necessary to safeguard its 8,000 workers there.

After stating that Cbi had operated in Columbia for over 100 years, Aguirre's defense of is company's actions said the company was unaware that what they were doing, bribing terrorist groups to protect their business operations and workers, was against U.S. law.

In the end, to escape from its diabolical dilemma whether obeying U.S. law was more important than protecting its company interests and those of its Columbia workforce, the company sold its banana operation and suffered a $9 million loss in the process.

CBI'S LINDNER, CINCINNATI'S REPUBLICAN BILLIONAIRE

Carl Lindner, Jr., a name closely associated with CBI but not mentioned in the bribery case, is Cincinnati's billionaire, who business empire encompasses convenience-store chain  United Dairy Farmers, American Financial Group, an insurance company and CBI, where he once was chairman of the board.

A long-time supporter of and campaign contributor to the Republican Party, Lindner showed himself a close friend of President George W. Bush, to whom he and his family donated tens of thousands of dollars. And as an owner of the Cincinnati Reds, a National League baseball team, Lindner provided the ballpark as a setting for Mr. Bush for a re-election campaign stop during the 2004 Presidential Election.

Common Cause provides a close up view of Lindner's largesses for mostly Republicans and Mr. Bush in particular. In another view of the billionaire and the buddies he supports, Mother Jones Magazine reveals more connections between Linder and well known Republicans and causes.

And even more Lindner secrets are revealed here that show Lindner has been accused of pressuring the White House and members of Congress as far back as 1994 on European trades issues around bananas.

So given Mr. Lindner's style of doing what it takes to succeed in business and with whom one needs to do it with, it may not seem plausible on hindsight that the company did not know their bribes were in contravention of our nation's laws and that money spent to keep operations going and enemies at bay is just part of doing business in a hostile country.