Bailed Out Banks Refuse To Give Accounting

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" That is what the Great and Powerful Oz says to Dorthy and friends in the perennial classic I watched this weekend for the umteenth time. There is a valuable lesson to be learned in that scene, one that could be applied to the current financial bailout being conducted by our own Wizard of Oz, Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson.

The Wizard turned out to be smoke and mirrors and so it would seem is the bailout. In a recent AP article when JPMorgan Chase was contacted about the $25 billion they got, the declined to give ANY specifics as to where the money is going or has gone!

"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."

After reading this article I expected to be blinded by a flash of green flame and a puff of smoke.

It is the height of hypocrisy to grill Automakers, (an industry that actually makes something tangible), like a bunch of naughty school children when they come before Congress and ask NOTHING of the banks and investment firms who are swallowing billions on a handshake.

Personally, I think this is the "Golden Parachute" from the Bush administration to pay off the fat cats who supported them and their rise to power. Now that they are exiting in a less-than-graceful fashion, they are trying to take the Treasury with them. Sometimes I get the feeling the GOP has modeled their government style on that of Mexico. There every 6 years it used to be a safe bet that the President would leave with the national treasure safely in his pockets.