@boxerdc Said
I really think that the banks should be acting frugally. If they want to woo rich clients, do it at home, not at some country club. When they travel, they should travel business class. And rather than spend my money buying each other, they should be investing in solid properties, and selling off foreclosed homes at reasonable prices, so that owners can pay mortgages on them.
I work for a bank, and trust me, were not looking for new and creative ways to waste money. We're trying to be as frugal as possible, but our stock price is lower than ever now. Our price was around $14 before the whole crisis, it dropped to $10 after we announced losses. After we announced our recovery plan it has dropped to $5.50.
Some of the changes we've made:
* No raises for anyone, even the tellers making under $10/hr.
* The work week for full time hourly employees is limited to 37.5 hrs.
* Part time employees cannot work more than 25 hrs per week.
* Exempt salaried employees are expected to work 5 to 10 extra hours a week.
* We cut our dividend in half (major catalyst for the drop in stock price).
* Required all employees to sign up for E-statements, and insisted we bug customers to do so as well to cut down on postage.
* Expected performance standards have been raised to levels beyond the ones we had when the economy has in better shape.
* Raised or added fees to nearly everything (those free checking accounts you keep $50 in actually cost us more than we benefit).
So far the results have been a $4.50 drop in stock price, a higher employee turnover rate (including our CEO who quit), and customer frustrated with higher fees and additional product offers.
These stories of lavish bank spending do little but stir up people's emotions to get them angry at the banks. If legislators really cared about banks not using private jets or throwing parties, they could have added those provisions to the loans to begin with. Plus legislators condemning banks (or pretty much anyone) on fiscal responsibility is about the most hysterically ironic thing I have ever heard.
These stories are all to set the stage so people will be more willing to support higher taxes on the rich and on businesses, and pave the way for more regulation that serve only the interest of the government.