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Here's a true
story first reported by my Fox News colleague Andrew Napolitano (with
the names and some details obscured to prevent retaliation). Under the
Bush team a prominent and profitable bank, under threat of a damaging
public audit, was forced to accept less than $1 billion of TARP money.
The government insisted on buying a new class of preferred stock which
gave it a tiny, minority position. The money flowed to the bank.
Arguably, back then, the Bush administration was acting for purely
economic reasons. It wanted to recapitalize the banks to halt a
financial panic.
Fast forward to today, and that same bank is begging to give the money
back. The chairman offers to write a check, now, with interest. He's
been sitting on the cash for months and has felt the dead hand of
government threatening to run his business and dictate pay scales. He
sees the writing on the wall and he wants out. But the Obama team says
no, since unlike the smaller banks that gave their TARP money back,
this bank is far more prominent. The bank has also been threatened with
"adverse" consequences if its chairman persists. That's politics
talking, not economics.
Think about it: If Rick Wagoner can be fired and compact cars can be
mandated, why can't a bank with a vault full of TARP money be told
where to lend? And since politics drives this administration, why can't
special loans and terms be offered to favored constituents, favored
industries, or even favored regions? Our prosperity has never been
based on the political allocation of credit -- until now.
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I'll be interested in any
comments about how the Obamanites try and explain this away. I'd
go looking myself, but I'm Uh ... looking for my contacts under the
bed. Aw, who am I kidding? I am honestly afraid of this beast,
the most evil thing I've ever encountered.
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