Free Republic

Multiple lawmakers sold their shares in First Republic Bank in the weeks before the firm collapsed and was sold to JPMorgan Chase by financial regulators. First Republic Bank imploded on Monday, weeks after Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank similarly collapsed, as account holders with balances above the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation threshold rushed to withdraw their funds. Periodic transaction disclosure forms reveal that multiple lawmakers jettisoned their shares in First Republic Bank or acquired shares in JPMorgan Chase over the past two months, a phenomenon which follows accusations that some lawmakers routinely buy stocks at opportune times and cut...

Philip Delves Broughton, in Monaco for the trial of Ted Maher, finds that the principality is a rotten little retirement home for fat catsIt was bucketing down in Monte Carlo and the casino was empty. Croupiers sat forlornly at the tables in the gilded Salle d’Europe and in the large private rooms at the back, overlooking a sheer drop to the Mediterranean. Several of them were horsing around with the sticks they use to gather in chips. The restaurant tablecloths were starched and laid with silver, but the waiters had no one to serve. A few old birds in dodgy...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Berkeley, Ill.-based National Bank of Commerce was closed by regulators Friday, marking the first bank failure of 2009, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said in a statement. Republic Bank of Chicago will assume all of National Bank of Commerce's deposits, while the two locations of National Bank of Commerce will reopen Saturday as branches of Republic Bank, the FDIC said.