Banks mum on where the money’s going

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. — The Associated Press

So, a couple months after the feds doled out enormous sums of money to rescue the banks and save the bedrock of our financial infrastructure, as per usual, folks in authority, CEOs and the like are not being forthcoming with how they are using our money, as reported by this articlefrom The Associated Press. This, of course, is absurd since these banks are handling public money and should in theory, be obligated to be open about where the money is going. But they aren’t obligated, since the bank bailout included lacking measures of accountability.

JPMorgan Chase spokesman Thomas Kelly had the audacity to say,

“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.’ We have not disclosed that to the public. We’re declining to.”

“We’ve declined to?!?!?” What gives JPMorgan a right to decline to? Any American who will, in one way or the other, carry the burden for the banks’ bailout, should be angered by this statement.

That said, I did support supplying money to the auto industry and sincerely hope they show a more forthcoming attitude toward how they are using public funds. As we saw recently, President Bush OK’d a $17 billion package that would at least ensure the auto industry could continue chugging through the new year. Hopefully, Obama will rework and seek to restructure the industry altogether, as he is obligated to do once taking office, since Bush left the measure open to alterations. Clearly, after years of inadequate products and mismanagement, the companies have to be restructured to assure long-lasting viability and stability. We’ll have to wait until long after Jan. 20 to see how the bank and auto bailouts shake out.