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Double Standard: Banks (and Bank CEOs) Getting Off Easy vs. Automakers

Posted Mar 30, 2009 02:57pm EDT by Aaron Task
On the same weekend the Treasury Department said $134.5 billion of TARP funds remain, the Obama Administration made it very clear American automakers aren't going to see much (if any) bailout funds.

Whether Obama is doing the right thing by taking a hard line with the automakers is certainly debatable. What's incontrovertible is the government has taken a much tougher stance with the automakers than it has with Wall Street.

Consider:

  • While Rick Wagoner was forced out at GM, Ken Lewis is still on the job at Bank of America. Moreover, none of the bank receiving TARP funds have lost their CEOs or had government-mandated board changes, as is the case with GM. Bank of America's Ken Lewis (Note: the government did force management changes at AIG, and Fannie and Freddie after their de facto nationalizations.)
  • While bank bondholders and AIG counterparties have been made whole via government largesse, the bondholders of GM and Chrysler are being asked to take major "haircuts."
  • While the Obama administration said AIG bonuses had to be paid because of the sanctity of contract law, there's no hesitation to force the UAW to renegotiate its contracts with the Big Three (again) - or to allow judge to restructure mortgage agreements.

The stark difference between how the government is dealing with the banks vs. the automakers comes down, in large part, to the idea of bank failures posing "systemic risk," something the government doesn't fear from automakers. Furthermore, car companies - like airlines - can still operate while under bankruptcy; financial firms cannot, as we saw with Lehman Brothers.

In addition, the American people (and elected officials) have longstanding frustration with the automakers - and the UAW - while Wall Street has only recently found itself in the penalty box.

So there may be legitimate reasons for this double standard in how the government is dealing with automakers vs. banks. But there's no denying a double standard persists.

124 Comments

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday March 30, 2009 03:07PM EDT

Lynch them ALL!

kelly
kelly - Monday March 30, 2009 03:10PM EDT

Well yes, Bankers have a stronger lobbyist group then automakers. Plus Bankers are very well connected, forget the TV media show, that is just for television. Check one particular joke at findthelawyer.com where the bankers are told to return the bonuses with a promise of making it up in the next bailout. Check it out, that is the truth.

shags1_23
shags1_23 - Monday March 30, 2009 03:10PM EDT

No bailouts! Any viable company shouldn't need it. If they can't survive without free money, they shouldn't survive.

david
david - Monday March 30, 2009 03:13PM EDT

The working class of this country has again been screwed over. Everyone had better hope that we never get into another "serious war", Wall Street is not going to build the tanks and other weapons that the Big 3 were able to make for us when we needed them. When I was in the Army in 1971 I had one M-16 made by Colt, the other was made by GM. Guess Wall Street could always try to bribe any enemy that would try to destroy this country.

David
David - Monday March 30, 2009 03:15PM EDT

The banks CAN operate after coming out of FDIC sponsored bankruptcy, or whatever else the FDIC does to dispose of assets and reconstitute a bank. The systemic risk is vastly overblown as an excuse to bail out politically connected interests. The core impediment to the FDIC is the Fed/Treasury hunta and the repeal of Glass-Steagall which prevented the formation of the conglomerate financial corporations which are now at the center of the problems. At least now there is no uncertainty about who controls our government, who our government works for, and who will end up paying the bills.

Jim,MtnViewCA,USA
Jim,MtnViewCA,USA - Monday March 30, 2009 03:17PM EDT

the Obama team is making it up as they go along. don't expect any sort of consistency. off topic: http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=3404

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday March 30, 2009 03:18PM EDT

The BANKERS Gave MORE.....Money to Mr. NOBAMAS Political Campaign.!!!!!!!

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday March 30, 2009 03:18PM EDT

GE is making out damn good too. With their bailout money and big$$ bonus paid. Funny not one word of out-rage.Could it be because they are also apart of msnbc. A little odd don't ya think.

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday March 30, 2009 03:18PM EDT

Guys, how can the admin get rid of the Bank Ceos where in reality the country is being run by those crooks, who behind the scene controls the government as well? We are in a path where these crooks will use Govt as curtail and lead to the destruction of this nation unless somehow magically we can deviate from this path.

Howard
Howard - Monday March 30, 2009 03:18PM EDT

I think it is a bunch of bull. Wall street should be held to the same standards as the Auto makers because it was Wall street that helped cause all of this with the state of the economy. Their cheating and back door deals are a big part of the problem.

- Monday March 30, 2009 03:19PM EDT

Maybe the government should nationalize the auto industry and run it. There's no way they could do a worse job than the auto execs have done over the last 3 decades.......they've run the U.S.'s prize industry into the ground!!

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday March 30, 2009 03:20PM EDT

Perhaps Obama is using this to increase the outrage toward the banking industry and then use the outrage to make it more politically possible to restructure the banks? Maybe just wishful thinking!

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday March 30, 2009 03:20PM EDT

Guys, how can the admin get rid of the Bank Ceos where in reality the country is being run by those crooks, who behind the scene controls the government as well? We are in a path where these crooks will use Govt as curtail and lead to the destruction of this nation unless somehow magically we can deviate from this path.

Tuna
Tuna - Monday March 30, 2009 03:22PM EDT

Bailing out banks is not "standard". How can it be a double standard?

John M
John M - Monday March 30, 2009 03:23PM EDT

The writer left out that the automakers play a role into Obamas Global Warming charade...

Yahoo! Finance User
Yahoo! Finance User - Monday March 30, 2009 03:24PM EDT

Difference is that CDS and all those derivatives are to hard to comprehend, so they rubber stamp whatever the banks want. On the other hand, everyone who knows how to use an automatic gear suddenly thinks they can tell the big three how to run their companies, and so politicians find the spine to do it.

__A_YAHOO_USER__
__A_YAHOO_USER__ - Monday March 30, 2009 03:27PM EDT

cause Congress has no ba!!s...... http://www.freewebs.com/rumorsconspiracybooks/Folder1/The%20Federal%20Reserve%20is%20PRIVATELY%20OWNED%20by%20Thomas%20D%20Schauf.pdf

jim n
jim n - Monday March 30, 2009 03:27PM EDT

I say the congressman that suggested AIG's exec commit suicide was right on!!!! These financial CEOs & execs should like GM's CEO read up on supukko and Hari Kari

aroon
aroon - Monday March 30, 2009 03:29PM EDT

Also there is an obvious reason for double standard. PEOPLE IN CHARGE OF BAILOUT FUNDS AND ALL BIG WHEELS IN TREASURY DEPARTMENT ARE FROM BANK AND WALL STREET. SO THEY TAKE CARE OF THEIR BUDDIES.

Johnny
Johnny - Monday March 30, 2009 03:29PM EDT

Obama is not to be trusted. His huge Wall Street banker campaign contributions have made him appoint the very people tied in with de-regulation of Wall Street to run the economy. Small wonder that he gives the finger to real people who make real things but is willing to give a trillion to Wall Street. I for one would like monopoly finance capitalism to be ended completely. The return to the 1933 separation of banks from brokerages and insurance companies would seem an obvious start. But Obama and the Wall Street loving economists he has surrounded himself with are loudly silent on breaking up the banks that are "too big to fail". Obama is so phoney. He pretends to be a populist. He is no FDR. He is no Clinton. He is a hollow, back-boneless phoney. People will wake up and grow to intensely dislike him.

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