Finally Ed Hale has sold 1st Mariner Bank's consumer finance unit, which he badly needed to do to raise cash to bolster the bank's capital ratios.The stock market is unimpressed. 1st Mariner stock is up only a nickel, to $1.27, as I write this. On low volume.

That's because Hale has to come up with at least another $10 million by the middle of next year to avoid having the bank seized by federal regulators. It's not clear how he's going to do that. Earlier this year 1st Mariner officials and analysts who follow the bank were thinking Hale could get $20 million for the consumer unit. But no. To make up the other $10 million he probably has to sell new stock in the bank -- to board members or somebody else. But a price of $1.27 is not predicting big things for today's shareholders. $1.27 says they'll either get the heck diluted out of them when new shares are issued or wiped out when the FDIC steps in. Still, the stock has recovered from pennies territory earlier this year, which bespeaks some hope.