The Bloomberg news service has posted an in-depth story about Credit Suisse's financing of luxury resorts. The story focuses heavily on Tamarack Resort and features an interview with developer Jean-Pierre Boespflug, who says the Swiss bank's loan offer in 2006 was so sweet it "like putting candy in front of a 4-year-old." Read Credit Suisse Resort Loans Default From Beverly Hills to Idaho.

From his perch on the Senate Banking Committee, Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo gets a closer look at the government’s handling of the credit and housing crises than most lawmakers do. So I sat in and listened with interest when he stopped by the Statesman the other day to talk to our editorial board.

Crapo said the credit crunch is still very much with us in Idaho. “We’re getting a tremendous number of complaints from businesses that can’t get money,” he said.

Boise’s Micron Technology may be picked by the government of Taiwan to take part in consolidating the island nation’s memory-chip industry, Dow Jones Newswires reported Thursday.

Taiwan plans to select either a group led by Micron or a group led by Elpida Memory Inc. of Japan to lead the consolidation, according to the news report from Taipei.

Tough times for most of us mean good times for some businesses. Ask Alan
Armstrong, chief auctioneer for Armstrong Auctions in Nampa.

The 46-year-old ex-Marine started Armstrong Auctions with his wife, Dee Dee,
in 1992. They and their son, Alan Jr., conduct 60 to 80 auctions a year,
often for homeowners and businesses that are liquidating.

“Wherever our pickup is, that’s where our office is,” Alan Armstrong says.

Winters are slow seasons, but lately they’ve been getting more calls from

And for still more news on the fraud front:

The Idaho Department of Finance has been awfully busy lately. First, it sued DBSI (see previous blog post). Next, it announced that it is investigating Idaho Falls businessman Daren Palmer for what a department official believes is one of the largest Ponzi schemes in state history. Now, the department is suing a Driggs man and his Utah partner for selling unregistered securities based on viatical insurance death benefit interests and misrepresenting them as guaranteed.

A part of DBSI Inc. has been sold as the Meridian real-estate investment company’s bankruptcy case proceeds.

DBSI’s property management business was put on the auction block last month. This week, a 7-year-old South Carolina company, TIC Properties Management LLC of Greenville, won the auction.

Zions Bank publishes a monthly Small Business Index for Idaho. The index was a lousy 74.1 during December 2008, up from a revised 74.0 during November.

The index measures business conditions from the viewpoint of the Idaho small business owner or manager. That means conditions got ever-so-slightly more favorable from one month to the next, even as credit got crunched, bailouts blossomed, foreclosures flowered and stocks slid. (Sorry, I love alliteration.)

A Boise coffee and wine shop has closed. The Venice Coffee and Wine Bistro was located at 1320 S. Maple Grove Road between Overland Road and I-84. In an e-mail to customers and others, owner Debra Browning said, The shop had two employees with college degrees, she said, and “anyone would be lucky to have them.” The shop featured wine tastings and live music.

Now that three state-chartered banks have received nearly $42 million in federal funds, the Idaho Department of Finance has put out a news release telling everyone to stop calling the money a bailout.

The department is receiving an increasing number of questions and complaints about the U.S. Treasury’s Capital Purchase Program, and “most of them are based on misperceptions,” said Director Gavin Gee. The program is part of the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, called TARP.

The Idaho Senate opened its business on Inauguration Day with a prayer from its black chaplain, Henry Webb, who happened to be celebrating his 73rd birthday as Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation's president.

Webb, an assistant pastor at St. Paul's Baptist Church in Boise, said before the prayer that he didn't expect he'd live long enough to see a black president. "But I'm mindful of what The Word said, 'All things are possible, if you believe.'"