$750 billion dollars (the bailout) just dropped off the radar. Banks say they can't track it.

[ck4829]

If you skip a payment, they'll know where to find you, but yet...

"It's something any bank would demand to know before handing out a loan: Where's the money going? But after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending the money or they simply refuse to discuss it.

"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,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to."

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."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081222/ap_on_bi_ge/meltdown_secrets

[Divine Discontent]

1. seriously..... why don't we just start calling it the United Banks of America

I keep hoping come late Jan, or even into Feb. that the Obama Adm. will round up the entire BFFE for trials.

[barbtries]

2. it's so outrageous

i can't keep reading. i have high blood pressure, i feel so fucking helpless. how did this - never mind. why did this - never mind! i have to go to work, thankfully i still have a job and i have to keep it. this is so outrageous.
it's just a big fuck you. i don't know how they sleep.

[Divine Discontent]

3. I pray you keep your job! And, yes, it's hard to even read that news about this!

no wonder so many don't pay any attention. It hurts too much. :(

[Greyhound]

4. Imagine my surprise...

:sarcasm:

I hate to have to keep saying it over and over and over and over, but we told you so.

[FreakinDJ]

5. revolt - revolution - Repossess

[DCKit]

6. Arrest, Prosecute and Imprison.

You gotta finish your sentences. Not everyone is psychic like me.

[madokie]

7. Thats the three words I want to hear

[Hubert Flottz]

8. I'll bet the UAW stole it!

Or the Cenis Menace took it?

[unblock]

9. this is complete hogwash.

they're saying they're not tracking how they're USING the money.

if a bank lends YOU money, does anyone require YOU to track how YOU use the money? no, not even for home equity loans anymore. it all goes into your pool of money that you can use however you choose, and you don't have to account for how you spent the loan vs. how you spent your wages.

the only exceptions are specifically collateralized loans such as mortgages and auto loans.


the main intention of the bailout was to support the banks, not to require them to use it for specific purposes. that might have been a good idea, but it would have led to quite a lot of debate in congress and it would have delayed things, and the decision at that point was that it was better to get the money into the banks' hands than to quibble about specific usage, especially given that money is otherwise fungible and requiring that they use the bailout money more one way would simply mean they would use other money less that way in order to achieve whatever they were going to achieve regardless.

[1776Forever]

10. One last hold-up of B's $$$$$ from the Bush Administration for its BASE.........

I hope when President-elect Obama gets into office he listens to his!

IT IS TIME TO BRING THESE THIEVES TO JUSTICE!

[Canuckistanian]

11. Here's a solution

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. So we can assume they're selectively funneling the money to

Bush campaign donors?

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. Are you all aware that there are a number of ways for embezzlement to

occur in a bank because of the way they do their math? Commercial bank loans, for example, are not to the penny. They round things off. Now you got to ask yourself, wouldn't someone brilliant know how to come in after the first line number crunchers handed in their work and figure out the correct math and if there's an excess, just skim the "mistake" without anyone knowing?

[tblue37]

14. The phrasing of that quote is pretty much "F* you!"

"We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it,'" said Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money. "We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to <emphasis added>."