U.S. banks may pay dearly for government "aid" (Harkin, border)

[Little-Acorn]

It's an old, old story. He who pays the piper, calls the tune. When you accept somebody's money, they usually reserve the right to tell you how to run your affairs. The Federal government has been doing it to states for decades, imposing new rules on states that accept Federal funds. Now they are doing it to private companies.

It's not dissimilar to what the Mafia typically does to businesses, through loansharking. They get someone in debt to them, and then start putting their own people on boards of directors, getting "protection" payments from worried (to say the least) officials, etc., until they practically run the business.

Why should the U.S. government shy away from such a well-proven business model?

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U.S. banks may pay dearly for government aid - International Herald Tribune

U.S. banks may pay dearly for government aid

By Stephen Labaton
Published: March 11, 2009

WASHINGTON: The list of demands keeps getting longer.

U.S. financial institutions that are getting government bailout funds have been told to put off evictions and modify mortgages for distressed homeowners. They must let shareholders vote on executive pay packages. They must lower dividends, cancel employee training and morale-boosting exercises, and withdraw job offers to foreign citizens.

As public outrage swells over the rapidly growing cost of bailing out financial institutions, the administration of President Barack Obama and lawmakers are attaching more and more strings to rescue funds. Some experts say the conditions are necessary to prevent Wall Street executives from paying lavish bonuses and buying corporate jets, but others say the conditions go beyond protecting taxpayers and border on social engineering.

Some bankers say the conditions have become so onerous that they want to give the bailout money back. The list includes small banks like TCF Financial of Wayzata, Minnesota, and Iberiabank of Lafayette, Louisiana, as well as giants like Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank in San Francisco. They say they plan to return the money as quickly as possible, or as soon as regulators set up a process to accept the repayments.

[Repubocrat]

Good post! Actually, I have worked in the financial/banking industry for a while and one thing that really bothers me about this industry is how many incompetent people manage to stay in this industry for YEARS without ever delivering results. Now, imagine if the Government were to run these banks Nice name BTW but I hope you don't work for ACORN

[Bostonian123]

Obama admin is pretty smart. He'll give loans to the banks but attach so many conditions to these loans that there will be great incentive for the banks to get back on a good footing as soon as possible and return the money. It is better than a loan with no strings attached.

[ovcatto]

Originally Posted by Repubocrat

Good post! Actually, I have worked in the financial/banking industry for a while and one thing that really bothers me about this industry is how many incompetent people manage to stay in this industry for YEARS without ever delivering results. Now, imagine if the Government were to run these banks Nice name BTW but I hope you don't work for ACORN

What as a teller? Or where you in charge of restocking the ATM machine?

[Little-Acorn]

Originally Posted by ovcatto

What as a teller? Or where you in charge of restocking the ATM machine?

Good old avacatto. When he can't refute the message, you can always count on him to atttack the messenger instead.