Banks get bailout bucks, but small businesses are blown off
Posted by Scott "The Piper" St. Clair - January 14, 2009Recently, I blogged on Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat's excellent piece about the impact of heavy-handed regulation on a small retail business. In today's Times, Westneat smacks another one out of the park.
Banks are getting massive amounts of federal bailout bucks as easily as you get water out of the tap. But when it comes to doling out those bucks on the other end, they're stingier than Scrooge was to Bob Cratchit. That's not unexpected since everything else associated wih the whole bailout mania has been bass ackwards from the get go.
While we can wax eloquently on the doctrinal theories of why this happens, nothing trumps seeing real-world impacts on real people, in this case a small business owner who needed a loan in an amount less than what her bank probably spends on business lunches in a week. The bank, which wasn't in financial trouble yet still received $124 million in bailout bucks, gave the business owner a figurative back-of-the-hand slap.
Let Danny sum it up in his own words:
"This bailout isn't working. It's fine for the banks. And the government insists it will eventually earn back its money because it now owns shares in all these banks.But for the rest of us, it's a black box. Money goes in but doesn't seem to come out. For people like (business owner) Pam Pentz: When will the nickel start to trickle?"
That is a question for the ages...
The Piper
Thoughts? Add Comment -
There are no comments for this entry yet.