WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS? (J.D. Rhoades' Blog)

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Banking has become a bad word during this current economic crisis and bankers are complaining their status and respect has fallen to the level of lawyers and - journalists. This week some 300 North Carolina Bank Directors gathered for their annual meeting - a pep rally of sorts. Leoneda Inge reports...

It's actually an interesting story to listen to, and I do have a couple of friends in the banking industry who are decent guys. I'm pretty sure I've never seen them in a private jet. And since their respect level has fallen to lawyerly levels, let me just say....welcome to my world. Sorry you're feeling ill-used and put upon. You get used to it.

So here's my solution to their malaise: Give every banker a banjo.

Well, We're Not REALLY Drowning...

Some Banks, Citing Strings, Want to Return Aid - NYTimes.com:

As public outrage swells over the rapidly growing cost of bailing out financial institutions, the Obama administration and lawmakers are attaching more and more strings to rescue funds.

The conditions are necessary to prevent Wall Street executives from paying lavish bonuses and buying corporate jets, some experts say, 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 return the bailout money. The list includes small banks like the TCF Financial Corporation of Wayzata, Minn., and Iberia Bank of Lafayette, La., as well as giants like Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo.

They say they plan to return the money as quickly as possible or as soon as regulators set up a process to accept the refunds. On Tuesday, Signature Bank of New York announced that because of new executive pay restrictions in the economic stimulus package, it notified the Treasury that it intended to return the $120 million it had received from the government only three months ago.

Now, I hate to say "I told you so," but....awww. who am I kidding, I love to say that:

Now wait just a doggone minute here. This is supposed to be an emergency measure, right? A vitally needed lifeline? Now, I'm no fancy financial genius, but it seems to me that a financial institution that can look at the lifeline and go, "Eh, no thanks, too many strings attached" is perhaps not bad off enough for our tax dollars to be used for life support.

BUT:

To hear Paulson tell it, though, if we don't pass his three-page plan right freakin' now, the entire U.S. economy will collapse. If it hadn't passed by today, Paulson implied, Donald Trump will be selling apples on street corners on Monday, we'll be standing in line at soup kitchens with our tattered ragamuffin children by Wednesday, and by Hallowe'en we'll all be putting on our leather jackets and hockey masks and heading off into the desert to fight for survival a la "The Road Warrior."

Guess it's time for the Otter Defense again....

Monday, March 09, 2009

"They should be spending 100% of their time and energy focusing on structuring real solutions to todays problems..."

You Mean Like These Guys?

“We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. “Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition."

Hey, at least this one admits they got nothin'.

This is the same NC Rep , BTW, who didn't have the balls to make actual accusations he'd have to prove regarding Democratic involvement in outing Republican Representative Mark Foley as a creepy child stalker back in '06, he just "asks questions."

As long as the Republicans keep letting sleazy hacks like this speak for the party, they get the back of my (rhetorical) hand.