While The Nation Celebrates...

A great day today on the National Mall, as the inaugural celebration for Barack Obama was kicked off with a fun two hour concert including performances by The Boss and a typically great U2. I think the best part, though, was when Bruce brought out folk legend Pete Seeger to sing "This Land is Your Land," which in many ways is what this whole election was about. Here it is if you didn't see it:

This is our land, our United States, and with President-elect Obama on the verge of taking office, I'd like to believe that we really can take it back now - starting with an explanation of how the first $350 billion of the TARP bailout has been spent, and why the investment of taxpayer money into the banking system hasn't resulted in increased lending (at least according to what I've been reading and hearing). But more than anything, we need an explanation of why the banks that have accepted bailout money are not required to disclose what they're doing with it. This from the New York Times:

"Individually, banks that received some of the first $350 billion from the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, have offered few public details about how they plan to spend the money, and they are not required to disclose what they do with it. But in conversations behind closed doors with investment analysts, some bankers have been candid about their intentions.

Most of the banks that received the money are far smaller than behemoths like Citigroup or Bank of America. A review of investor presentations and conference calls by executives of some two dozen banks around the country found that few cited lending as a priority. An overwhelming majority saw the bailout program as a no-strings-attached windfall that could be used to pay down debt, acquire other businesses or invest for the future."

Not required to disclose what they do with it. No-strings-attached windfall. That's unbelievable to me. How stupid is that? "Hey bankers who have messed up your own business with your corrupt and greedy lending practices, here's some free cash to fix the economy! Wink, wink! We trust you! Just don't go and do anything naughty with it. Or anything at all. It might be taxpayer money we've given you, but we don't feel like that buys us any say in your financial firms, okay?" Thank you, Bush administration. Thank you Hank Paulson. And perhaps a thank you to incoming Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who had something to do with the bailout as president of the New York Fed. It's my hope that now that TARP is your responsibility, you fix this. You and President-elect Obama have to.

Because this land is our land.
And that cash is our cash.
It's not the bank's cash.
It's the public's cash.
So that means they answer to you and me.

-EB