In a huge turn of events, banks now seem to be fighting back against the stealth nationalization of our financial system.
The list of demands keeps getting longer.
Financial institutions that are getting government bailout funds have been told to put off evictions and modify mortgages for distressed homeowners. They must let shareholders vote on executive pay packages. They must slash dividends, cancel employee training and morale-building exercises, and withdraw job offers to foreign citizens.
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.
Other institutions like Johnson Bank of Racine, Wis., initially expressed interest in seeking bailout funds but have now changed their minds. Bank executives told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that one reason they rejected the government money was to avoid any disruption in the bank’s role in the local community, including supporting the zoo or opera company if they chose to.
One of the biggest concerns of the banks is that the program lets Congress and the administration pile on new conditions at any time.
The demands to modify mortgages or forestall evictions are especially onerous, some bank executives and experts say, because they could prompt some institutions to take steps that could lead to greater losses.
I was hoping this would happen. Quite simply, we cannot let the government have ownership interest in nearly every bank in America. Finance, money, is ultimitaly the root of all ownership, of all commerce, of the free market. Once government is allowed to dictate the terms of a loan, it’s only matter of time before the rest of society must follow suit.
That banks, mind you big and small ones, have stepped up and said, “no” is impressive. I have a higher respect for Wells Fargo out of this financial mess than I did before. They fought having to take the bailout monies, and being forced to, are seeking to return it as quickly as possible. It is becoming clear which institution’s in America have outlived their products (GM, Chrysler) and which ones will not resort to mooching and rely instead on their own innovation (Wells Fargo).
This is the audacity of NOPE. This is what I talked about in yesterday’s post. We can restore Liberty, Freedom. We need only say, “thanks, but no thanks” to the tyrannical hand of Uncle Sam. It all starts with opting-out.