Power Breakfast: Bank failures, election, divorce, Delta, Ford, health care

At least they came to listen.

A Congressional subcommittee decamped to the Georgia State Capitol on Monday to focus on the wave of bank failures here, along with the foreclosures that have decimated neighborhoods, AJC reporter Paul Donsky writes.

During three hours of testimony, the House subcommittee – led by former Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat – heard from bankers, builders, homeowners and academics in an effort to better understand the Peach State’s problems and determine how the federal government could help turn things around, Donsky reports.

Dan Immergluck, a professor at Georgia Tech’s city and regional planning program, said Congress should be much more forceful by requiring mortgage servicers to do a better job of modifying loans of homeowners struggling to make payments

Others, including former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, said regulators should go easier on the state’s community banks, many of which are reeling from losses tied to the collapsed home building industry. Since 2008, 25 small Georgia banks have been closed down by regulators, the most in any state.

Also in the AJC:

• Race puts Atlanta election on national media radar
• Mayor Franklin says she’s voting for Reed
• Divorces dip along with the economy
• Clayton schools can keep accreditation
• Union vote rule change vexes Delta
• Atlanta cop’s drive is his Decatur car museum

In other media:

• Crisis compels economists to reach for new paradigm
• Two tough health care issues remain in House
• Ford posts unexpected profit of $997 million
• A free credit score followed by a monthly bill
• British plan breakup of bailed-out banks