Q: We seem to be getting lots of mixed signals on the prospects for economic recovery. How do you see it?
A: I don’t believe the outlook is particularly strong. The fundamentals, to me, don’t feel very good.
Businesses were starting to feel better after the first quarter, but then the European crisis hit. I think there’s a great deal of uncertainty in the business sector around the global impact. Businesses in general are not hiring right now. They were starting to build inventories, and now they’ve slowed down their spending again.
We have this looming national debt and global debt. I don’t see any end to it. The spending continues. This is not a political statement about Republicans or Democrats, but I don’t think Washington understands the importance of the creation of jobs, how to get that done. They’re too focused on being punitive to the business community at large. We need to get behind business now and move on.
Q: Are you supportive of the financial regulatory reform bill in Congress?
A: It was designed to come up with a solution to avert another crisis. But we will go through another crisis. It happens every seven to 10 years.
The positive things in the bill are bringing the unregulated organizations and firms, mortgage brokers and the like, into a systematic regulatory body.
We’ve put a box around things that happened in the last crisis. But we’ve done that with every crisis, and then somebody finds a new bell and a new whistle. Will we have the political will for legislators and regulators to step in front of that bus and put the brakes on?
My concern is that banks will carry the burden of (regulatory costs) and ultimately the consumer will lose out.
Q: Why did UMB recently agree to acquire investment management firm Prairie Capital Management?
A: We’ve been strategically trying to align our company more as a financial-services company rather than a bank. That doesn’t mean we’re not as interested in the bank, but we’re trying to make sure our portfolio of businesses and revenue streams is diversified.
Prairie Capital provides us a solution for our high-net-worth clients. It puts an entirely different wrapper on the company than what most people know about us.
Edited for length and clarity by staff writer Steve Raabe.
