Citizen Power

This video reminded me of Wall Street and the unaccounted-for billions that U.S. taxpayers were forced to give greedy bankers and investment companies. As a token of their gratitude, some of these financial companies have risen their credit card rates into the stratosphere, and are refusing to loan money to anyone who does not have a 7+ credit rating. And they’re not telling anyone where the bailout money has gone!

I’m still not clear on why unregulated capitalism was ever the way we do financial business in this country. And why did it go so wrong?  Maybe it’s just too tempting and human nature is basically greedy. I’d like to think that’s not true,  though. After all, at this time of year we buy and give gifts, right? Yet stories of astounding greed are still coming out nearly every day. Here is one on the excuses the financial companies are giving when asked the question:

“Where’s the money going?

But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation’s largest banks say they can’t track exactly how they’re spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it.

“We’ve lent some of it. We’ve not lent some of it. We’ve not given any accounting of, ‘Here’s how we’re doing it,’” said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. “We have not disclosed that to the public. We’re declining to.”

The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what’s the plan for the rest?

None of the banks provided specific answers.

“We’re not providing dollar-in, dollar-out tracking,” said Barry Koling, a spokesman for Atlanta, Ga.-based SunTrust Banks Inc., which got $3.5 billion in taxpayer dollars.

Some banks said they simply didn’t know where the money was going.

“We manage our capital in its aggregate,” said Regions Financial Corp. spokesman Tim Deighton, who said the Birmingham, Ala.-based company is not tracking how it is spending the $3.5 billion it received as part of the financial bailout.”

What BS! We have to stop giving these masters of the universe our money. All we get is statements like the above and like this:

“There has been no accounting of how banks spend that money.”

and more excuses:
(more…)