Or suspends I shall say but either way, can they do that?
Apparently, the state has stopped all business relationships with Bank of America and will not resume until the bank restores the line of credit to Chicago-based Republic Windows & Doors.
Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is quite fired up about the fact that the taxpayer money that was used to bail out these banks for lending is being hoarded instead so it will be interesting to see how this gets resolved.
I know the line of credit is supposed to be used to pay workers but isn’t the state of Illinois bullying BofA by doing this? Will banks be forced to lend to all business regardless of risks involved if enough customers (firms, states and the like) do this? What do you think?
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I think anyone can choose who they do business with but using it as leverage is unethical. I can’t believe a state would publicly do this.
You know, my first thought upon hearing this story was that the state government of Illinois was WAY out of line.
BofA merely closed the line of credit to Republic Windows & Doors on the basis that they no longer qualified. Republic Windows & Doors, is the party that is in breach of contract with its unionized workforce, not BofA. As I said, my first thought was the government was way out of line, but then I considered the fact that BofA did accept a bailout, and I suppose since the federal gov’t now owns a piece of BofA, this is the sort of stuff we’re going to start seeing more of. Personally, I think the workers union heads (and politicians eager for favorable poll results) are just going after whomever they can to get the money, but this is part of the slippery slope of government bailouts.
It may be but a small taste of what’s to come if the big 3 bailout goes sour.
I’m curious about why people think that it is unethical to chose who do to business with as part of getting a company to change its business practices. This has been done for many years.
I’ve stopped going to stores because I don’t like the way the store does business.
Pension funds, including state run funds, have ceased to invest in companies that engaged in practices they don’t approve of.
It is an old, established, and as far as I can tell normally considered ethical way of deciding who to do business with.
If I was Ken Lewis I would say.
“thank you governor. I know you are doing this just to get re-elected
so let me be able to speak. The reason we are in this mess is because
we gave out crappy loans to crappy customers. Now you want me to make
another crappy loan to another crappy customer? Looks like I’ll be
needing TARP money till infinity with this thought process. Which by
the way, I didn’t want. Paulson forced it on me so that it doesn’t
look bad for banks to take this money.”
To America, You think us rich people in New York and Charlotte are bad
bankers?,,,wait till the politicians take a stab at it!
ps. I also posted this on google finance
I think it’s a genius move by the governor’s office. Not necessarily a positive or negative move, but genius nonetheless.
@Dario: The whole point of the bailout was to get the banks lending again — obviously to qualified customers — but they haven’t. Period. They are hoarding the money for acquisitions which was not the intent of the bailout money. Anything that encourages the banks to start lending again (which helps the economy) sounds like a good idea to me.
Poor Bank Of America…:(
-Mike
Credit risk, bull. If credit risk was used on Bank of America, the US government would never have given B of A a loan. And when my money (I’m a taxpayer) is used to bail out a bank, the expectation is that they will us it to help individuals and businesses. The banks are part of the cause of the failure of this economy, which is the reason businesses are not doing well. Until this really becomes a freemarket economy again, then B of A needs to loan out money. Bank of America is the greediest bank out there, so much so that I am about to sever my relationship with them.
CB