The Strings Are Showing

Take a man's money and you do his dance; take the government's money and ...

[Foxbusiness] Whether the turn-off is the intense public scrutiny, the strings attached or that they just might not have needed it to begin with, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Bank of America are all reportedly planning to get TARP funds off their hands ASAP. The banks are the latest to join the list of companies that have opted to turn down or return the government rescue money.

[Washington Examiner] Bank of American Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis says his company did not even want the original $25 billion "bailout" money last October, but was pressured into it by Bernanke along with the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the treasury secretary and the head of the Office of Comptroller of the Currency. BOA didn't need the money, he said, because "we had just raised $10 billion in common equity the week before." [Really? You didn't want it? Then why did you use $20 billion of it to by Merrill Lynch? -Ed.]

After the firing of GM's cheif executive by the White House, more and more private industry leaders don't want the strings attached to the bailout monies being shoved down their throat and are trying to give it back. It's not like the government would try to seize their business, would they?