Here we go again. Bank of America gets $25 Billion of our (or more precisely, our grandchildren’s) money and does not use it on behalf of American workers. The way I read the story, Republic Windows and Door shut their windows, closed their doors, and fired their employees because Bank of America cancelled the company’s line of credit, thus avoiding the federal requirement that employees being laid off receive 60 days pay and benefits.
To be sure, Bank of America looked at the downturn in the company’s revenues and made a prudent banking decision. Bank of America is not responsible for the company’s business decision, the welfare of the employees, or the downturn in the housing market. Well, let’s hedge a bit. Bank of America and the financial industry might have made a series of business decisions that landed Republic Windows and Door and the rest of us in the current mess. Did our Congress find Bank of America responsible for their own business decisions and force them to live with the results? Did you, Senator McConnell, recipient of $5000 from a PAC affiliated with Bank of America, vote to let Bank of America suffer the consequences of their bad investments?
Oh, wait. Those folks (the ones who run Bank of America) are your peers, friends, colleagues, benefactors, fishing buddies. They’re too big to fail; they’re one of you. Senator, I submit that this is an example of class warfare. You save the bankers and let the hourly workers suffer the consequences of the irresponsible banking calls of the last eight de-regulated years.
In 1995, R. J. Samuelson opined in Newsweek that "the War on Poverty is over and the poor lost." Looks like the banks won.
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