OUR BUDDIES AND GREAT AMERICANS, THE BANKERS

OK, we're in an economic mess and the U.S. government tries to help by giving major and regional banks money to free up the credit markets. Now, what do these MOTUs do to help out? Make more loans? DON'T BE SILLY! It's all about THEM, remember?

During an October 17th JPMorgan Chase employee-only conference call, one asked:

“Chase recently received $25 billion in federal funding. What effect will that have on the business side and will it change our strategic lending policy?”

Here's the answer:

“Twenty-five billion dollars is obviously going to help the folks who are struggling more than Chase,” he began. “What we do think it will help us do is perhaps be a little bit more active on the acquisition side or opportunistic side for some banks who are still struggling. And I would not assume that we are done on the acquisition side just because of the Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns mergers. I think there are going to be some great opportunities for us to grow in this environment, and I think we have an opportunity to use that $25 billion in that way and obviously depending on whether recession turns into depression or what happens in the future, you know, we have that as a backstop.”