By Mr. Curmudgeon
“My main message in today’s meeting was very simple: that America’s banks received extraordinary assistance from American taxpayers to rebuild their industry, and now that they’re back on their feet we expect an extraordinary commitment from them to help rebuild our economy,” President Obama demanded after attending a White House meeting with the men he called “fat cat bankers” on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” About 700 banks received federal bailouts – the largest being Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan.
Many financial institutions now trip over themselves to repay the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) to avoid draconian cuts in pay and bonuses, which the Obama administration and the Democratic congress wish to impose on executives at recipient banks. This explains the lack in lending. With new regulations requiring banks to increase their capital reserves, and the rush to pay back an overly intrusive Uncle Sam, there isn’t much in the way of capitol to lend small business…unless said Uncle enacts a Reaganesque across-the-board tax cut.
Most forget that many of the nation’s healthy banks – those with little or no exposure to the sub-prime mess – were forced to take federal bailouts so their “too big to fail” mega-bank brothers would not appear weak in the eyes of investors. President Bush’s Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson told nine of the nation’s major banks, “To encourage wide participation, the [TARP] program is designed to provide an attractive source of capital, on identical terms, to all qualifying financial institutions.” He also informed them there was no escaping the helpful iron fist of government. “If a capital infusion is not appealing, you should be aware that your regulator will require it in any circumstance.”
Many Republicans like to forget that much of Obama’s destructive economic agenda is built on a foundation provided by the “compassionate conservative” George W. Bush.
Add to the mix a threatened increase in business taxes to cover an expensive government takeover of health care and the uncertainty caused by Obama’s determination to reduce the industrial output of carbon by requiring business to buy carbon indulgences under a proposed cap-and-trade law, is it any wonder capitol is frozen. American business – big and small – cower like like baby seals waiting to be clubbed. It is the uncertainty caused by Obama’s damaging “hope and change” that has turned a once vibrant and resilient economy into a giant iceberg. Obama’s White House meetings only deepen the freeze.
