It’s not the economy, stupid. It’s Alexi.

As the Illinois Senate race heats up and questions continue to swirl around Alexi Giannoulias and his family bank, the Democrat Senate hopeful would like voters to believe that the economy brought down Broadway Bank. But a quick look at the facts shows Alexi’s risky lending was the cause:

• Alexi Giannoulias claims that Broadway Bank is failing because of the bad economy. “The bank loans aren't performing because we are in the worst economic recession since the Great Depression and the commercial real estate market crashed by 30 to 40 percent.” (Alexi for Illinois, Press Release, 3/1/2010)

• Giannoulias says Broadway Bank is no different from any other struggling community bank. “Hundreds of community banks that didn’t get a dime of bailout dollars are struggling, and Broadway Bank is no exception.” (Bloomberg, 2/26/2010)

• But the State of Illinois and the FDIC disagree. “The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) announced today…the following disciplinary orders in the month of January 2010…Broadway Bank, Chicago – ordered to cease and desist from engaging in unsafe and unsound banking practices.”

• And the New York Times reports Alexi Giannoulias’ “reckless lending” and “hot money” led to Broadway Bank’s collapse. “But here is an inconvenient fact about bank failures: They do not happen overnight. A dollop of reckless lending here, a dash of destabilizing hot money there, hide a few troubles over there. Let that simmer for a while and, voila!, an insolvency soufflé.”

• According to the New York Times, Giannoulias moved the bank into risky construction-related lending practices. “Construction-related lending jumped to more than triple the bank’s required regulatory capital during this period, and the loans started to go bad. By the time Mr. Giannoulias departed, Broadway was left with nearly $14 million in real estate on its books, more than 10 times the level when he arrived. Foreclosures take time, though — often about 18 months. And within two years of Mr. Giannoulias’s departure, the bank was left holding $38 million in real estate.”

• According to the New York Times, Giannoulias made a risky push into brokered deposits. “The move into real estate coincided with a headlong push into brokered deposits. This is quintessential hot money — large amounts that jump from bank to bank, each bank offering the lure of high interest , which the banks then must fund by making ever-riskier loans…During Mr. Giannoulias’s time at the bank, brokered deposits catapulted fourfold, to $640 million. The typical bank at this point was growing brokered deposits at about 9 percent a year.”

• Besides, what kind of community bank based in Chicago approves loans for convicted mobsters in Florida? “FELONS IN FORECLOSURE: Broadway Bank has filed foreclosure cases in Cook County Circuit Court to collect nearly $2.5 million on a 2004 loan to two convicted felons, Michael Giorango, 56, and Demitri Stavropolous, 41, that was secured in part by two Chicago properties. Separately, the Chicago-based bank has filed suit in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court to collect $10.4 million on a 45-rooom South Beach hotel and shuttered restaurant in Hollywood, Fla., which are owned by ventures that include the duo." (Crain's Chicago Business, 7/13/2009)