Are Banks Dead? Or Are the Reports Greatly Exaggerated?

This paper reexamines the conventional wisdom that commercial banking is an industry in severe decline. We find that a careful reading of the evidence does not justify this conclusion. It is true that on-balance sheet assets held by commercial banks have declined as a share of total intermediary assets. But this measure overstates any drop in banking, for three reasons. First, it ignores the rapid growth in commercial banks' off-balance sheet activities. Second, it fails to take account of the substantial growth in off-shore C&I lending by foreign banks. Third, it ignores the fact that over the last several decades financial intermediation has grown rapidly relative to the rest of the economy. We find that after adjusting the measure of bank assets to account for these considerations there is no clear evidence of secular decline. To corroborate these findings, we also construct an alternative measure of the importance of banking, using data from the national income accounts. Again, we find no clear evidence of a sustained decline. At most the industry may have suffered a slight loss of market share over the last decade. But as we discuss, this loss may reflect a transitory response to a series of adverse shocks and the phasing in of new regulatory requirements, rather than the beginning of a permanent decline.

Documents Describing the Second and Third Expeditions of Lieutenant Diego Pena to Apalachee and Apalachicolo in 1717 and 1718

The success attained by Lieutenant Diego Pena in the discharge of the mission to Apalachee and Apalachicolo, to which he was assigned in the summer of 1716, made him the logical choice for similar duties in the following two years. The authorities in St. Augustine entertained the hope of repopulating Apalachee through inducements offered to surviving Apalacheans then living along the Apalachicolo (present-day Chattahoochee) river and elsewhere, as well as members of adjacent and related tribes, whose disillusionment with the English had produced the then recent Yamassee war. Knowledge that the success of this project was imperiled by the English, who were again penetrating this area in an effort to regain their former ascendancy over the Indians, and that the French from Mobile as well were, with thinly veiled hostility since the death of Louis XIV, competing for Indian favor, intensified the efforts of the Spanish authorities to bring the Indians wholly under Spanish influence. The French had penetrated among the Upper Creeks where they enjoyed considerable favor, while among the Lower Creeks the competition between Spanish and English partisans resulted in much turbulance

Spanish Interest in British Florida, and in the Progress of the American Revolution

Despite the loss of Florida to Great Britain in 1763, colonial officials in Cuba, probably reflecting the attitude of the Spanish Court, maintained a lively interest in their erstwhile province and preserved a hope of its eventual recovery. When the mounting tension in the British colonies to the north progressed from civil disorder to the revolutionary struggle, Spanish interest in the conflict became intense as the cherished hope began to exhibit the possibility of attainment. The meagerness of the news which reached that Court through random channels was insufficient to reveal the trend of events or determine the moment for decisive action. The situation demanded the deliberate collection of adequate intelligence, and by a Royal Cedula to the Governor of Cuba, dated February 28, 1776, the latter was directed to gather all possible information and dispatch suitable persons, preferably those connected with the Asiento, or in the guise of smugglers, to Pensacola, to Florida (meaning St. Augustine), and to Jamaica, for this purpose. Compliance resulted in the submission of various reports, certain of which are reproduced below to develop our theme. While these are mainly focused on relatively minor events, they nevertheless afforded the principal independent considerations which determined the Spanish intrusion in the struggle, and hence actually have a broader significance

The Fortifications at San Marcos de Apalache

The region of Apalache and of its bay on the Gulf coast seem to have been ignored by the Spaniards following the departure of De Soto from this vicinity after overwintering here in 1539-40. Certainly we are not aware of its further mention in available records until the arrival of the Christianizing Franciscan fathers in 1633, who probably, as did De Soto, came overland,, but in the latter instance from St. Augustine

School Choice: Perceptions of Magnet Schools and Charter School Principals and Parents in Georgia

The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of parents and administrators in selected magnet schools and charter schools in Georgia. The intent was to give administrators of schools in Georgia an understanding of which parents in Georgia are most apt to make a school choice. Additionally, the study was aimed at providing administrators with an understanding of the factors parents considered when selecting a school for their children and what sources of information the parents utilized to find information necessary to make a choice. To collect data, a survey was distributed to parents and administrators in six magnet schools and two charter schools in Georgia. A total of 534 parents completed and returned the surveys. Eight administrators completed and returned the surveys. Both the parents\u27 survey and the administrators\u27 survey contained 20 factors parents and administrators were asked to rank in importance using a Likert scale. Each survey contained nine sources of information the parents and administrators ranked using a Likert scale. Each survey contained open ended questions for the parents and administrators to provide additional information. The parents\u27 survey contained demographic questions pertaining to ethnicity, family income and educational level. Data were analyzed using frequencies, means, and standard deviations. A multivariate analysis of variance MANOVA was performed with the clusters of factors and sources of information. A univariate analysis of variance was performed with each dependent variable. The findings showed that parents were most interested in factors such as strong academic emphasis, safety, the school\u27s discipline policy, and the school\u27s emphasis on values education. The study found that administrators had a good understanding of the factors parents were looking for in a school. Parents utilized personal contacts with the schools to gain information about the schools. The study also revealed that parents and administrators are utilizing the Internet as a source to gain information and to market the schools. As administrators face the probability of having to market their schools in the future, the information provided in this study will be very pertinent to them

A Map of, the Road from Pensacola to St. Augustine, 1778 (with nine plates)

The attention of students of Florida history is called to the Stuart-Purcell map of the road from Pensacola to St. Augustine, which was brought to the writer’s notice by Dr. John R. Swanton. Considered both from the standpoint of the representation of topography, as well as the descriptive legend, it is the outstanding available account of the interior of western and much of northern Florida in the British colonial period

The First American Road in Florida: Papers Relating to the Survey and Construction of the Pensacola-St. Augustine Highway, Part I

In these days of paved highways and of swift private transportation, accounts of early efforts to improve communications have a great interest. After American occupation of the territory of Florida, the inaccessibility of the only centers of population to each other soon attracted interest. This resulted in the projection and construction of the old Pensacola-St. Augustine highway, today an abandoned and almost forgotten route across the state, but interesting as the first instance of American road construction in Florida, as well as the fact that the eastern half would appear to follow one of the early Spanish routes from St. Augustine to Apalache