We takes the money!!!

Working for a bank has given me some insight in to the current banking crisis that, unfortunately, is more bad news than good. On the bright side, I have the pleasure of being employed at an institution that has not required any TARP funds in order to stay afloat. We have suffered losses, obviously, but nothing to the extent where the business is suddenly in trouble.

It seems to me that the largest banks are the ones that have been hit the hardest and have needed bailouts the most. Now, if about 95 banks have failed as I read recently then a good chunk of them must have been small but most of this money has gone to financial institutions that have risen above the pack. Why is that? Why would the supposed "cream of the crop" be hurting the most? I suppose there are a number of reasons to account for that whether it's blatantly over-the-top executive pay, risky investments, poor accounting practices, or whatever. But these are the guys who have gobbled up most of the government money and, if this report is true, have not learned a thing from their recent struggles. Or perhaps they did learn. Maybe they learned that every time they fuck up the government will come and throw them another fist full of cash.

Where all banks are affected by this is by the FDIC insurance. This is the funding that makes sure we, the customers, don't lose our money when a bank goes under. Prior to the banking crisis the bank I work for had to pay something in the thousands for insurance. After the crisis we were hit with a special assessment fee that hit us up for a cool $2.5 million. Very soon they are getting together to find out about an additional assessment that could hit us up for about $10 million. I do a lot of peer analysis for the company and I've seen that these fees have knocked net income figures for a number of banks in to the red, taking what looked like a promising year in a time of trouble and change and wiping it out.

So here's the way I see it: we, the smaller banks are busy propping up all the failed banks and a good number of the big boys. The huge banks of the world get government cash injected which they are using to do everything but what they were told to do. These banks then go and buy out the little guys who are getting crippled by increased insurance costs. These banks then continue sketchy investment practices, albeit with less inclination to lend to their customers. They eventually fail again, people get laid off, government throws more money at them.

So who wins in all of this? The executives, obviously.

Why does it seem that everything is set up for the guys at the top? And when is somebody up there going to do something about it?