Give it Back
The New York Times reports today that a number of banks, from smaller ones to some of the biggest (Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo), find the conditions for receiving taxpayer bailout cash so onerous that they are talking about returning the money to the federal government.
Some Banks, Feeling Chained, Want to Return Bailout Money
If the banks can afford to return the money, it is rather obvious that they never needed it and their CEOs and CFOs were lying when they told Congress that they were about to go under without massive infusions of fresh capital. Something smells unbelievably rotten about what is happening on Wall Street and we need to get to the bottom of it quickly. It’s looking more and more like a shell game designed to benefit the people at the top of the financial sector at the expense of just about everyone else.
Throughout this extraordinary economic episode that began last September, Wall Street (and its mostly Republican allies in Congress) have protested violently at any government effort to help poor and middle-class families that are losing their jobs and their homes. They are choking on the requirement that if they accept public monies they must actually do something in return for the public whose taxes make it possible for the bailouts to happen.
The government should immediately accept--even demand--a refund of the bailout money and begin investigating the banks for fraud, perjury, and perhaps even worse criminal offenses. Thorough audits by independent auditors of all the bailout recipients should be the first order of the day. The FDIC already has the authority to audit and then take over an insolvent bank. The president should instruct them to do so, no matter how large a bank may be.
Some Banks, Feeling Chained, Want to Return Bailout Money
If the banks can afford to return the money, it is rather obvious that they never needed it and their CEOs and CFOs were lying when they told Congress that they were about to go under without massive infusions of fresh capital. Something smells unbelievably rotten about what is happening on Wall Street and we need to get to the bottom of it quickly. It’s looking more and more like a shell game designed to benefit the people at the top of the financial sector at the expense of just about everyone else.
Throughout this extraordinary economic episode that began last September, Wall Street (and its mostly Republican allies in Congress) have protested violently at any government effort to help poor and middle-class families that are losing their jobs and their homes. They are choking on the requirement that if they accept public monies they must actually do something in return for the public whose taxes make it possible for the bailouts to happen.
The government should immediately accept--even demand--a refund of the bailout money and begin investigating the banks for fraud, perjury, and perhaps even worse criminal offenses. Thorough audits by independent auditors of all the bailout recipients should be the first order of the day. The FDIC already has the authority to audit and then take over an insolvent bank. The president should instruct them to do so, no matter how large a bank may be.
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