Sometimes the handwriting is so clearly on the wall that it is simply amazing that it remains unread. As the federal government prepares to dole out the second half of the $700 Billion bailout fund authorized by Congress, documented evidence – the little that we do actually know about what happened to the bailout money already given to financial institutions – shows that these banks have no intent to use the public funds to help with the public’s economic crisis. Instead, Bank executives are using the public funds received to cover their backsides and bolster their balance sheets. Public needs be damned! Consider the following quote from a bank receiving about $300 million in public bailout funds:
At the Palm Beach Ritz-Carlton last November, John C. Hope III, the chairman of Whitney National Bank in New Orleans, stood before a ballroom full of Wall Street analysts and explained how his bank intended to use its $300 million in federal bailout money.
“Make more loans?” Mr. Hope said. “We’re not going to change our business model or our credit policies to accommodate the needs of the public sector as they see it to have us make more loans.”
Before we condemn the bankers, we ought to put their actions in context. They have been led to believe that the bailout money is a no-strings payback for their loyal support of the GOP controlling majority in Congress and unflinching support of all policies that Bush has implemented. They do not see any contradiction in private use of these public funds. These banks never believed that the true purpose of the bailout was to help the public. Instead, they convinced themselves that their institutions were either “too big to fail” or that they were too connected to the Bush administration to be allowed to fail. The “business model” that is referred to above has led these institutions to the verge of collapse, but these executives remain committed to that model. What the heads of these institutions are effectively saying is that they deserve to be bailed out, despite their own incompetence and mismanagement. As the old cliché reminds us, it is not what you know but rather who you know.
One of the difficulties that the American public has repeatedly faced in dealing with the Bush Administration is a failure to understand and accept the level of venality and corruption that lies at the very core of its policies and actions. There seems to be a yearning to find some level of integrity and humanity that simply has not been evidenced. Early in the Bush Administration, excuses were offered that the President was being duped by cynical and conspiratorial “handlers” like Cheney and Rumsfeld. To some extent, these agents did have their own agendas that they were able to execute through manipulating power and resources within the Bush Administration. However, it is now fairly inconceivable that the magnitude of corruption that pervades the Bush Administration could have proceeded without the knowledge and consent, if not at the express direction, of the President.
Thus, as decisions are made regarding further bailout funding, careful examination of the true intended purpose is required. In addition, strict measures to ensure that the funds are actually used for a public purpose must be attached to the disbursement of any additional funds. The first half of the $700 Billion was spent for the purposes that the Bush Administration intended. It simply was not the purpose that the public was led to believe was being served. The deceit must come to an end. If not, shame on us.
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