{"id":13248,"date":"2009-02-06T22:02:38","date_gmt":"2009-02-07T05:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2009\/02\/06\/money-well-thrown-away.html"},"modified":"2009-02-06T22:02:38","modified_gmt":"2009-02-07T05:02:38","slug":"money_well_thrown_away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/02\/06\/money_well_thrown_away.html","title":{"rendered":"Money well-thrown-away"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

These guys really don’t get it. They have no idea how close they are to mobs with torches and pitchforks storming their gates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Citigroup Inc.<\/a>, targeted by lawmakers for paying $400 million to put its name on the New York Mets\u2019 new ballpark, and seven other banks that received government funds may face questioning by Congress for spending $845 million on stadium sponsorships.<\/p>\n

Bank of America Corp.<\/a>, which like Citigroup received $45 billion in government funds, is paying $140 million to have its name on football\u2019s Carolina Panthers stadium. JPMorgan Chase & Co.<\/a>, which received $25 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, is spending $66 million for branding Chase Field in Phoenix, home to baseball\u2019s Arizona Diamondbacks.<\/p>\n

Ohio Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich<\/a>, who last week urged the Treasury<\/a> department to cancel Citibank\u2019s deal, called spending by banks for naming rights \u201cfrivolous\u201d and said Feb. 3 that he plans to hold hearings. Companies that received TARP funds are under scrutiny as President Barack Obama<\/a> and lawmakers respond to public outcry over executive bonuses and questionable expenditures.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I mean, yeah, from one perspective, just like the Vegas junkets and the lavish bonuses and the private aircraft, as a percent of the taxpayer money spent it’s trivial. From another perspective, it’s a public slap in the face to … well … the public. It’s like having your kid beg you for money for the bills this month, then discovering he spent a portion of it going out for a chi-chi dinner, or blew some of it at the track. And it raises the issue whether the other money — the vast bulk of it — that’s been given over is being similarly pissed away.<\/p>\n

These are the sorts of companies that complain most bitterly when the government sticks their noses into their business. But, having come hat-in-hand to beg for bail-outs, it’s amazing that they are so tone deaf as to continue to pull these stunts. Even if they don’t mean it, a period of contrition and austerity would really <\/em>be a good idea right now …<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(via Les and The Consumerist<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These guys really don’t get it. They have no idea how close they are to mobs with torches and pitchforks storming their gates. Citigroup Inc., targeted by lawmakers for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","category-economy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14235,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/03\/17\/its-getting-to-be-torches-and-pitchforks-time.html","url_meta":{"origin":13248,"position":0},"title":"It’s getting to be torches and pitchforks time …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Mar-09 3:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The finance industry really seems to have no idea of the level of animus being generated by their own actions amongst the general taxpaying citizenry. The biggy over the past few\u00a0days has been, of course, AIG, into which the taxpayers have plowed $80B, turning around and giving out $165M of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":160330,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2024\/01\/02\/111682207807957089.html","url_meta":{"origin":13248,"position":1},"title":"Catering to the torches and pitchforks encourages more torches and pitchforks","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Jan-24 12:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"And weakening the rule of law out of fear doesn't make anyone any safer","rel":"","context":"In "~Toots"","block_context":{"text":"~Toots","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/toot"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43294,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/28\/america-is-not-immune-to-the-torches-and-pitchforks.html","url_meta":{"origin":13248,"position":2},"title":"America is not immune to the torches and pitchforks","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 28-Jun-14 4:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"People have forgotten (and too few histories teach) about the social unrest in the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries -- fought violently by the police, the Pinkerton, even the army, and largely assuaged only by the social programs (and abrupt poverty redistribution) of the Great Depression,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31924,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/27\/the-peasants-are-revolting-they-certainly-are-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":13248,"position":3},"title":""The Peasants are Revolting!" "They Certainly Are!"","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 27-Dec-12 3:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Matt Taibbi screedifies on America's billionaire financiers and how put out they are that poor folks who pay no federal income tax have \"no skin in the game,\" and how unfair it is that the rich are hated by all the hoi-polloi.'People like Dimon, and Schwarzman, and John Paulson, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14228,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/03\/16\/unblogged-bits-for-monday-16-march-2009-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":13248,"position":4},"title":"Unblogged Bits for Monday, 16 March 2009","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 16-Mar-09 6:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ... Gibbs On Cheney: \"I Guess Rush Limbaugh Was Busy\": Eric Kleefeld CBS' Chip Reid Asks Gibbs: Is This The Official Tone Toward Cheney?: Eric Kleefeld Why Are AIG\u2019s Contracts Sacrosanct But Not Union Workers\u2019 Contracts?: Ali Frick\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133794,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/04\/the-last-days-of-pompeii-beverly-hills-style.html","url_meta":{"origin":13248,"position":5},"title":"The Last Days of Pompeii (Beverly Hills Style)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Jul-17 1:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Come the revolution, you now know the place to march with your torches and pitchforks.Or, put another way, anyone who buys this house based on this ad deserves a major landslide next rainy season that sends it careening down into the mansion below (when nobody is at home to get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}