LittleLightShining
09-23-2008, 02:43 PM
This is my meetup group! Woohoo!
http://burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/NEWS02/80923028
Bail-out assailed on Main Street
By Joel Banner Baird • Free Press Staff Writer • September 23, 2008
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About 15 people on Burlington’s Main Street, many of them in business suits, today protested federal plans to bail out the nation’s floundering flagship lenders.
While world stock markets wavered and pundits lobbied Congress, the local assemblage greeted lunch-time traffic with placards and signs outside Chittenden Superior Court, then walked up Church Street to the U.S. Post Office to continue their vigil.
Among those in Wall Street attire, key organizer Matthew Cropp of Burlington, said the bailout would prop up America’s least responsible companies at the expense of businesses with higher ethical standards.
Real capitalists, he said, did not prey upon the public.
“More responsible lenders should be able to profit from the mistakes being made,” he continued. “People who made the right decisions are essentially being punished for this.”
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Tanis Olson, who did not dress up for the occasion, drove from Bristol to speak her mind.
“I’ve worked at private, hometown banks for 31 years,” she said. “They had integrity and accountability.
“I couldn’t have done the job if I couldn’t stand behind them,” she added. “There are good, honest banks and good, honest bankers out there. It doesn’t have to be like this.”
She asked if anyone on the sidewalk had an ink marker; she wanted to amend her “No Bail-Out” sign with what she said was a more fundamental solution: “Stop the Greed.”
Ken Lawless of Burlington delivered both messages on a single sign that read “No Bail-Out for Greedy, Stupid Bankers.”
He also handed out a news release that advocated a more thoughtful restructuring of the banking industry.
“The government is gambling, essentially, with other people’s money,” Lawless said. “The decision to bail out the bigger lenders is panic-driven.”
One suggestion: a public bank, “along the lines of the Forest Service” — one in which executives are paid no more than school superintendents.
“If we’re going to socialize things, let the public after all own what it pays for,” he said.
Jonathan Baresi of Burlington proclaimed a more dire analysis: The banking failure and bailout, he said, might be a recipe for another world war.
“All the early warning signs are here. We’ve got to fix things before all hell breaks loose,” he said.
Not everyone agreed on the cause or remedy for America’s latest financial melt-down, noted Kevin Hurley of Burlington.
“We might not have been unified before,” he said, “but we’re unified now.”
Like Cropp, Hurley wore a business suit.
Cropp said he had dressed for the occasion; when working with children at the Howard Center he suited up more casually. So why the dark suit and tie?
“In a certain sense, this is a wake for the U.S. dollar,” he said.
http://burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/NEWS02/80923028
Bail-out assailed on Main Street
By Joel Banner Baird • Free Press Staff Writer • September 23, 2008
* Post a Comment
* Recommend (1)
* Print this page
* E-mail this article
* Share
o Del.icio.us
o Facebook
o Digg
o Reddit
o Newsvine
o Buzz up!
* What’s this?
About 15 people on Burlington’s Main Street, many of them in business suits, today protested federal plans to bail out the nation’s floundering flagship lenders.
While world stock markets wavered and pundits lobbied Congress, the local assemblage greeted lunch-time traffic with placards and signs outside Chittenden Superior Court, then walked up Church Street to the U.S. Post Office to continue their vigil.
Among those in Wall Street attire, key organizer Matthew Cropp of Burlington, said the bailout would prop up America’s least responsible companies at the expense of businesses with higher ethical standards.
Real capitalists, he said, did not prey upon the public.
“More responsible lenders should be able to profit from the mistakes being made,” he continued. “People who made the right decisions are essentially being punished for this.”
Advertisement
Tanis Olson, who did not dress up for the occasion, drove from Bristol to speak her mind.
“I’ve worked at private, hometown banks for 31 years,” she said. “They had integrity and accountability.
“I couldn’t have done the job if I couldn’t stand behind them,” she added. “There are good, honest banks and good, honest bankers out there. It doesn’t have to be like this.”
She asked if anyone on the sidewalk had an ink marker; she wanted to amend her “No Bail-Out” sign with what she said was a more fundamental solution: “Stop the Greed.”
Ken Lawless of Burlington delivered both messages on a single sign that read “No Bail-Out for Greedy, Stupid Bankers.”
He also handed out a news release that advocated a more thoughtful restructuring of the banking industry.
“The government is gambling, essentially, with other people’s money,” Lawless said. “The decision to bail out the bigger lenders is panic-driven.”
One suggestion: a public bank, “along the lines of the Forest Service” — one in which executives are paid no more than school superintendents.
“If we’re going to socialize things, let the public after all own what it pays for,” he said.
Jonathan Baresi of Burlington proclaimed a more dire analysis: The banking failure and bailout, he said, might be a recipe for another world war.
“All the early warning signs are here. We’ve got to fix things before all hell breaks loose,” he said.
Not everyone agreed on the cause or remedy for America’s latest financial melt-down, noted Kevin Hurley of Burlington.
“We might not have been unified before,” he said, “but we’re unified now.”
Like Cropp, Hurley wore a business suit.
Cropp said he had dressed for the occasion; when working with children at the Howard Center he suited up more casually. So why the dark suit and tie?
“In a certain sense, this is a wake for the U.S. dollar,” he said.