Another outrage
Henry Clark - Emporia
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
SO, AFTER reading how Wells Fargo, one of the banks to get bailout money to the tune of $25 billion, now has booked rooms for 12 nights at two of the most expensive hotels in Las Vegas all for an annual conference, I am amazed that Sen. Pat Roberts is not calling for criminal charges for using taxpayer money for this.
We do not need to be paying for them to have a conference there; with their financial outlook, they should be meeting in a Motel 6. Why do the working people have to pay this? Why do our elected officials just sit back and watch? They have mortgaged our futures, our children’s, and grandchildren’s, and quite possibly our great grandchildren, all to stay elected to office.
If they do not do anything to stop this insanity, then we should do a recall vote and get rid of them. They are there for us, we do not work to supply them.
Henry Clark
Emporia
goodoleboy (anonymous) says...
They already relented and are not doing this.
February 4, 2009 at 2:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Free4all (anonymous) says...
Only because they got caught. It was crazy for them to even THINK this was right to do after giving them OUR money for a bailout. Its like giving a homeless person money for food and he walks straight into the liquor store. Someone should loose there job for even considering this vacation, but they wont.
February 4, 2009 at 3:20 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jones743 (anonymous) says...
Emporia lost one of its major employer for the same type of "hi-jinks".
February 4, 2009 at 5:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
open_eyes (anonymous) says...
Speaking of major Emporia employers, I just happened to run across this news from last fall about our buddy Tyson Foods - workers at the Shelbyville plant will no longer get Labor Day as a paid holiday - instead, they now get a Muslim holiday.... (2nd story down in the link)...
http://www.benefitsbuzz.net/2008/09/i...
Gee, how DARE we consider Christmas a "Christian or religious" holiday. It's the "Winter Holiday".... or "Seasonal Celebration".....
(Don't worry, I'm sure the Muslim holiday has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with religion.... separation of church & state & all that, ya know....) LOL
February 4, 2009 at 9:46 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
Why would we want to do a recall vote on any politician? The only one to blame for all this mess just got replaced by Obama. Isn't that how it works? People have been saying it for years. I believed them because they said it so loudly and with such conviction. Was I fooled? Please say it ain't so. And to say that the greed of the bankers might be to blame is just laughable. How could all those bankers be George W. Bush. Come on people let's get serious.
February 4, 2009 at 10:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
I agree with Free4all. If they hadn't been caught, Well Fargo would still be going to Vegas on a spending spree. Now the question is how to keep up the scrutiny. It's our money, and we must be vigilant. These financial organizations must allow oversight. If they balk, they're suspect. Like Seinfeld's soup nazi: No money for you!
We must also make sure they pay back these loans. How about not patronizing such banks as Wells Fargo if they do "funny business."
Along the same vein -- the banking feds failed to pay attention to the fellow who contacted them to blow the whistle on Madoff. He made several contacts and still they did nothing about that monster. I wonder what would have happened if this man had just gone to the Fourth Estate instead and contacted some brave investigative reporter. It may have saved a lot of money for a lot of people. The name of the game is public scrutiny. These guys like to operate under rocks.
February 5, 2009 at 7:12 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Brian (anonymous) says...
Henry -
Here is the real scoop:
Today’s Associated Press story about Wells Fargo’s recognition events is intentionally misleading. The event is not a “junket” for executives but a four day business meeting and recognition event for hardworking team members who made homeownership achievable and sustainable for borrowers across the nation. In 2008 alone, the team members who were invited to this event and their colleagues produced $230 billion in mortgage loans for U.S. homeowners.
Through all economic cycles, our recognition events have been an important part of our company’s culture. Late last year, we cancelled recognition events for 2009 except those where the financial commitment was so great that no meaningful savings would occur by cancelling these events. We had scaled back the mortgage event, but in light of the current environment, we have now decided to cancel this event as well. We do not plan to have any other recognition events this year.
The Associated Press story also misleads readers by implying Wells Fargo used the government’s investment to pay for these events. As we’ve said before, we’ve used the government’s investment to lend to creditworthy customers and to help homeowners avoid foreclosure Since credit began contracting 18 months ago, Wells Fargo has made almost half a trillion dollars in new loan commitments and mortgage originations.
Last quarter alone, we made $22 billion in loan commitments and $50 billion in mortgage originations. That’s more than $70 billion or almost three times the amount of the U.S. Treasury’s investment in Wells Fargo—which has begun to benefit from our performance through the dividend we will pay to the Treasury this quarter.
February 5, 2009 at 8:11 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
I saw a late night talk show host compare the bankers little party to a party for grandma right after she died. Just because the party is planned before she dies doesn't mean you go on with the party.
"our recognition events have been an important part of our company’s culture" UUUMMMM? SO! Who's "culture" hasn't had to change because of the current economic chaos.
Perhaps we shouldn't have had our blame Bush blinders on for the last several years and we could have seen what the real problems were and still are. Oh well hopefully we've learned something from our recent stupidity and we won't blame one human being for all our problems again in the future. Now it seems that we have made Bush the weapon of mass distraction and we pointed him at our heads and pulled the trigger. Good job America...............good job.
February 5, 2009 at 8:52 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
open_eyes (anonymous) says...
Well, it looks like our congressmen/women are all off on their own little retreat. Dem & Repubs alike. The Repubs claim theirs is all being paid for with private donations/campaign contributions, the Dems say part with that & part with our taxpayer money. Geesh. Nothing like hiring a fox to keep an eye on the chickens.....
February 5, 2009 at 9:32 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
Well it's part of their culture to spend money when it's very very very inappropriate to do so. They really have no choice and after the bang up job they've been doing surely the deserve the break. Right?
February 5, 2009 at 9:37 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
nmse_s (Shannon Standard) says...
How did this Wells Fargo vacation become Pat Roberts fault? I'm just curious.
February 5, 2009 at 11:08 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
nmse_s
I assume it's his fault because he is a Republican and Bush is no longer around to blame. Pat Roberts was born on April 20th, Hitler was born on April 20th maybe there is another good reason to blame him. I think it's probably due to the fact that we in this country have a hard time switching gears. We've been blaming Bush( a Republican) for absolutely everything for so long that it's easier for us to continue blaming lower level Republicans to sort of ween off the blaming of Republicans more comfortably. Sort of like a methadone clinic. Forget drinking the koolaid we want orange juice.
February 5, 2009 at 11:24 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
goodoleboy (anonymous) says...
I do blame Bush and his cabinet, I blame the repubicans that held congress for so long, simply put these people held the keys to everything, all the cards and they went againist all their principles from spending to smaller government. The Dems are not clean either in this but I can say with absolute resolution that the last president and congress we had failed us, and they were Republican. Mitch McConnell actually stepped up the other day and finally admitted that republicans "screwed up bigtime" to paraphrase him.I honestly do worry about the republican party, there are a great many things that I find troubling with Democrats but I have no choice to but to vote Democrat in the last election to send a message to the republicans to get their butts in gear and get back to what they stand for, I hope they got the message.
February 5, 2009 at 1:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
If you believe that the Democrats were also a little bit to blame why vote for them? Why note vote third party and send a message to both. This was the perfect opportunity to do it. Everybody knew Obama was going to win. It was obvious the media picked him when in the primaries they treated Hillary Clinton like garbage and coddled Obama. How funny it is that she is now Sec. of State.
I voted third party and hope they both got the message but I doubt it.
February 5, 2009 at 2:17 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
goodoleboy (anonymous) says...
Actually I did vote 3rd party in 2000, the problem is that unless something major happens or some huge figure that the public can rally behind runs, 3rd party is just not viable, so I voted Democrat, and with the landslide presidential election and the massive democrat majority in Congress( which I am not confortable with at all) I can only deduce from here the the Republican party is taking a hard look at itself. I do have some empathy for Republicans and Dems alike in the Congress though in the earlier part of this decade, it seemed that whoever opposed any troop spending or war funding was labeled a traitor and unpatriotic, and any other time it would not have stuck, but Bush sold all of us that the war in Iraq was fighting Bin Laden and everyone bought it if for nothing else then to lash out in revenge at something. Ugh off track again, but I think the GOP got the message loud and clear with what happend to their numbers in power.
February 5, 2009 at 2:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
It wasn't about the viability of the candidate for me, it was to send a message. This was the perfect time to do it since we all knew ahead of time who was going to win anyway.
February 5, 2009 at 5:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
oh4theluvof (anonymous) says...
You know what they say-----consistency is the key...........
February 5, 2009 at 5:49 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
USNretired (anonymous) says...
Bull
February 5, 2009 at 7:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
USNretired
You said "Bull". The Bull is actually Merrill Lynch's mascot not Wells Fargo. It is hard to keep all these big banks straight though.
February 5, 2009 at 8 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )