The Star Players in the ShoreBank Story

The Shorebank story is quite complicated and filled with literally hundreds – if not thousands — of individuals who have been in some way involved in the unfolding of an intriguing saga. It has been difficult to narrow down the field of characters in order to focus on just a few. Some of the names are familiar, and some are relatively unknown (except, perhaps, within the context of their own circles of influence).

The original founders of Shorebank probably didn’t dream that this bank would have the worldwide influence that it now has. They were all very active in their communities and had a desire to see the South Shore neighborhood re-built to its former state of safety and community life. The neighborhood had suffered economically and was becoming run-down and plagued by crime. Their hope was to re-invest and re-enliven this neighborhood of Chicago. They made loans towards the renovation of many of the buildings which were deteriorating and in disrepair. They also invested in new building projects to benefit the residents of South Shore.

For 30-plus years Shorebank has seen its founders’ dreams realized; and beyond those dreams, Shorebank has become the catalyst for international financing — especially that directed toward low-income people in many countries of the world. The Community Reinvestment Act, passed into law in 1977 during President Jimmy Carter’s term of office, encouraged financial institutions to make loans to low-income borrowers. Ron Grzywinski (one of the original founders of Shorebank) was the only banker to testify before Congress in support of the Community Reinvestment Act. Its passage was instrumental in paving the way for Shorebank’s success. The bank steadily grew financially and facilitated the renewal of poverty stricken areas through the rest of the 1970’s and early 80’s, catching the attention of then-Governor Bill and Hillary Clinton of Arkansas (in fact, according to the IFA, Bill is still advocating on behalf of ShoreBank).

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Tags: Adele Simmons, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, bailout, Barack Obama
Posted Mar 13th 2010 at 6:01 am in Economics, Featured Story, Financial Services, News, Politics | 8328255 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/centralillinois912project/2010/03/13/the-star-players-in-the-shorebank-story/The+Star+Players+in+the+ShoreBank+Story2010-03-13+14%3A01%3A14Central+Illinois++9%2F12+Project

ShoreBank: A Key To Green Jobs

If you ask people on the street (outside of Chicago) if they have ever heard of ShoreBank, the answer would likely be “no.” While ShoreBank isn’t a Goldman Sachs, a Bank of America, or a JP Morgan, to the Progressives, this “little” bank is in many ways every bit as big and important as the aforementioned “large banks.”

Why?

One of the core components of President Obama’s fundamental change for America is to create clean energy jobs, also known as “green jobs”.  During his campaign and as recently as his State of the Union Address, President Obama continues to talk about the need “green” jobs. In fact, during his State of the Union 2010 speech, the President stated, “We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities –  and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy-efficient, which supports clean energy jobs. “

In a speech given by the President in Virginia on Dec. 15, 2009, he said, “The simple act of retrofitting these buildings to make them more energy-efficient — installing new windows and doors, insulation, roofing, sealing leaks, modernizing heating and cooling equipment — is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest things we can do to put Americans back to work while saving families money and reducing harmful emissions.”

In the  stimulus package last year, President Obama devoted nearly $60 billion of his plan for building a new green-based economy.

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Tags: ARRA, bailout, banking, Blagojevich, Chicago
Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 1:01 pm in Congress, Culture, Economics, Environment, News, Obama, Politics | 8291448 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/centralillinois912project/2010/03/10/shorebank-a-key-to-green-jobs/ShoreBank%3A+A+Key+To+Green+Jobs2010-03-10+21%3A01%3A16Central+Illinois++9%2F12+Project

Shorebank: The First ‘Green’ Bank

Since its founding, ShoreBank has been a progressive-minded bank focused on community development. However, it soon adopted the progressive commitment to environmentalism after founders Ron Grzywinski and Mary Houghton were approached in 1993 by Ecotrust, an environmentally-conscious firm focusing on debt for nature swaps in rainforest countries as well as environmental banking in the Pacific Northwest. The partnership of the two firms led to the establishment of ShoreTrust (now ShoreBank Enterprise Pacific) which provided financing, marketing and management assistance to small businesses in the Pacific coastal rain forest area. From there, the rest of the ShoreBank family eventually followed in adopting the green agenda.

For the entire story chronicling the founding of the bank and its move towards its environmental commitment, you may read Alka Srivastva’s dissertation for Case Western Reserve University here>>>.

From there, it did not take long for ShoreBank to incorporate environmentalism into its mission and formalize its commitment to the green agenda. In 1999, ShoreBank’s board of directors adopted a new conservation and development policy requiring the bank itself to reduce its waste and also encourage its customers to adopt more sustainable practices. The concept of environmental health then assumed its place alongside the goals of community development and profitability to form the “Triple Bottom Line” slogan that the company champions today. As evidence of its own commitment, ShoreBank has even addressed its own carbon emissions by purchasing offsets for 450 metric tons of C02 to offset emissions through 2010.

ShoreBank’s environmental advocacy is now prevalent throughout its dealings, both  in how it relates to its domestic banking customers, and in its international development objectives.

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Tags: bailout, banking, cap-and-trade, carbon trading, CO2
Posted Mar 8th 2010 at 11:59 am in Culture, Environment, History, News, Politics | 8290258 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/centralillinois912project/2010/03/08/shorebank-the-first-green-bank/Shorebank%3A+The+First+%27Green%27+Bank2010-03-08+19%3A59%3A52Central+Illinois++9%2F12+Project

ShoreBank, Sharia Law and Bank Bailouts

We all know what the words “debt,” “taxpayer,” and “interest” mean, but how many people know what the words “jizya”, “dhimmi” and “Grameen” mean? In order to understand the precipice of disaster that the banking system is resting upon today, one must understand all these words, and then some. No solution can be found by only understanding the first three. Only an illusion of understanding exists until the latter, and more, like “jihad” and “Sharia Law”, are considered.

The jizya amounts to a tax paid by Non-Muslims to Muslims in order that they may live in peace. A fair comparison is money paid by business owners to neighborhood thugs in order to gain protection. Think Mob. Engaging in this endeavor creates the status of dhimmi – a willingly subservient protected group of third class subjects. Let’s just call this what it is – extortion based slavery. Let us also understand that this is an endgame of this thing called “jihad”.

From the Koran:

(9:29) – “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”

(30:39)  And whatever you lay out as usury, so that it may increase in the property of men, it shall not increase with Allah; and whatever you give in charity, desiring Allah’s pleasure– it is these (persons) that shall get manifold.

(3:130) O you who believe! do not devour usury, making it double and redouble, and be careful of (your duty to) Allah, that you may be successful

(2:275) Those who swallow down usury cannot arise except as one whom  Shaitan has prostrated by (his) touch does rise. That is because they say, trading is only like usury; and Allah has allowed trading and forbidden usury. To whomsoever then the admonition has come from his Lord, then he desists, he shall have what has already passed, and his affair is in the hands of Allah; and whoever returns (to it)– these arc the inmates of the fire; they shall abide in it.

You get the idea.

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Tags: Allah, bailout, banking, dhimmi, Economy
Posted Mar 4th 2010 at 5:37 am in Culture, Economics, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, News, Politics, federal spending | 8285095 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/centralillinois912project/2010/03/04/shorebank-sharia-law-and-bank-bailouts/ShoreBank%2C+Sharia+Law+and+Bank+Bailouts2010-03-04+13%3A37%3A12Central+Illinois++9%2F12+Project

A New Idea: Don’t Bailout Greece, or Anyone Else for That Matter.

Greece is in big troubles.  Its economy is in bad shape, its debt is massive and its future is quite bleak. Interestingly, other European nations do not seem very eager to come to its rescue. The 27-country EU block, led by Germany and France, have promised some support package for the country but it comes with strings attached and  a lecture on how Greece must get its act together by slashing public sector wages and other spending.

Yet, instead of being grateful, Greece’s prime minister, George Papandreou, is mad as hell. First, he refuses to be treated like a lab animal (hey, I am watching to see what a country’s collapse looks like). Second, it’s not its fault. According to him,  it’s the fault of the European Commission “for failing to crack down on the previous conservative government’s “criminal record” in falsifying statistics.”

Remind me, where have I heard that the previous administration is exclusively to blame for the sad fiscal outlook of a country?

What would happen if the EU failed to extend a bailout package to Greece and if the country went bankrupt? There isn’t any doubt that, if Greece defaults it be painful and it would have very ugly consequences for the people who invested in that country. Not to mention the consequences this fall would have on Spain, Portugal and Italy.

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Tags: auto bailout, bailout, EU, European Commission, george papandreou
Posted Feb 16th 2010 at 12:57 pm in Uncategorized | 7620658 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/vderugy/2010/02/16/a-new-idea-dont-bailout-greece-or-anyone-else-for-that-matter/A+New+Idea%3A+Don%27t+Bailout+Greece%2C+or+Anyone+Else+for+That+Matter.2010-02-16+20%3A57%3A20Veronique++de+Rugy

The Democrat Strategy for 2010: Bye Bye, Bayh

Senator Evan Bayh’s decision not to seek re-election this November makes him just the latest among numerous Democrats who announced they are quitting. They have looked at the Obamacare debacle, the crippling debt, the millions of lost jobs, and the looming national security disaster heralded by the increase in jihad terror attacks on American soil, and they’re getting out. They know that Americans are waking up to how the big government policies of the Democrats are continuing to hurt our economy, and are ruinous for America.

Swindling Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) will not seek re-election; the drug-addled Congressman Patrick Kennedy will not be seeking re-election in Rhode Island; Arkansas Congressman Marion Berry and Senator Byron Dorgan are leaving. Then there’s Michigan Democratic Lt. Governor John Cherry’s decision to end his floundering bid for governor. Colorado Governor Bill Ritter is also retiring. Not to mention the stunning late December party switch by freshman Alabama Representative Parker Griffith — just to mention a few.

And in Bayh’s whiny withdrawal speech, he made sure to take parting shots at the Republicans under the guise of the well-worn canard of their “lack of bipartisanship.” As if the Democrats worked with Bush.

The Party of No? Hardly. It’s the Save-America party, it’s the Say No to Communism party. Bayh didn’t speak of the irreparable damage the Democrats are doing to this country. He whimpered that only the Republicans said no to a jobs bill (although the government doesn’t create jobs, the private sector does) and that the Republicans wouldn’t sign off on another bloated, useless, cost-prohibitive commission to investigate bloated, useless, cost-prohibitive government spending. Funny how even a Democrat who is thought of as honorable and measured showed no honor in his parting remarks. He went out like an ankle-biting Democrat, pathetic and small.

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Tags: bailout, Barack Obama, byron dorgan, Chris Dodd, collectivism
Posted Feb 15th 2010 at 2:39 pm in Congress, Culture, News, Obama, Politics | 75830217 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/pgeller/2010/02/15/the-democrat-strategy-for-2010-bye-bye-bayh/The+Democrat+Strategy+for+2010%3A+Bye+Bye%2C+Bayh2010-02-15+22%3A39%3A35Pamela+Geller

Inspector General: TARP Has Created a Looming Disaster

For all the phony talk coming out of the White House this past year about transparency and accountability, there actually is an institution outside of the executive branch which does a pretty darn good job at this most of the time: the Inspector General system. In fact, IG’s may do too good of a job by producing lengthy and meticulously detailed reports, difficult even for politically-attuned readers to digest, and which usually do not contain the types of partisan zingers that attract a lot of media attention.

Yesterday the Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) released their Quarterly Report to Congress for the period ending 12/31/2009. The executive summary tells us all we need to know about their assessment of the TARP initiatives over the past year. This whole segment is a MUST READ (it’s not a pretty picture):

The substantial costs of TARP — in money, moral hazard effects on the market, and Government credibility — will have been for naught if we do nothing to correct the fundamental problems in our financial system and end up in a similar or even greater crisis in two, or five, or ten years’ time. It is hard to see how any of the fundamental problems in the system have been addressed to date.

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Tags: bailout, debt, Financial Crisis, TARP, White House
Posted Feb 2nd 2010 at 1:56 pm in federal spending | 6877452 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mrichmond/2010/02/02/inspector-general-tarp-has-created-a-looming-disaster/Inspector+General%3A+TARP+Has+Created+a+Looming+Disaster2010-02-02+21%3A56%3A32Morgen++Richmond

America’s New Year’s Unemployment Hangover

One cannot drink oneself into sobriety. Yet that is precisely what Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration have attempted with our economy for the past year with predictable and painful results.

Unemployment continues to stand at an official 10% for the third month in a row, the worst joblessness in 27 years.  The real unemployment rate is far worse.  Included in the December economic figures was a shocker – the percentage of adult men who are working has fallen to the lowest level in recorded U.S. history at just 80%.  That means that one in five men in this country between 18 and 54 are neither working nor claiming unemployment.  They have fallen completely out of the workforce.

That helps explain why December’s unemployment rate remained at November’s 10% rate in spite of an additional 85,000 Americans losing their jobs.  At the same time the new jobless claims were added, many of the previously unemployed were simply removed from the workforce numbers altogether.

Economists estimate our true jobless rate as high as 17%, and that could grow in coming months as more Americans exhaust their unemployment benefits and lose homes to foreclosure.

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Tags: bailout, Barack Obama, cap-and-trade, congressional democrats, deficit spending
Posted Jan 13th 2010 at 1:59 pm in Congress, Obama, federal spending | 5936280 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jcarter/2010/01/13/americas-new-years-unemployment-hangover/America%E2%80%99s+New+Year%27s+Unemployment+Hangover2010-01-13+21%3A59%3A12Rep.+John+Carter+%28R-TX%29

Blank-Check Bailout for Fannie and Freddie Means Taxpayers Get a Lump of Coal from Obama

Even though politicians already have flushed $400 billion down the rathole, the Obama Administration has announced that it will now give unlimited amounts of our money to prop up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-created mortgage companies.

While President Obama should be castigated for this decision, let’s not forget that this latest boondoggle is only possible because President Bush did not do the right thing and liquidate Fannie and Freddie when they collapsed last year. And, to add insult to injury, Obama’s pay czar played Santa Claus and announced that that a dozen top “executives” could divvy up $42 million of bonuses financed by you and me. Not a bad deal for a group of people that more properly should be classified as government bureaucrats.

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Tags: bailout, bank bailout, corruption, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
Posted Dec 26th 2009 at 1:29 pm in Economics, News, Obama, federal spending | 52326132 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dmitchell/2009/12/26/blank-check-bailout-for-fannie-and-freddie-means-taxpayers-get-a-lump-of-coal-from-obama/Blank-Check+Bailout+for+Fannie+and+Freddie+Means+Taxpayers+Get+a+Lump+of+Coal+from+Obama2009-12-26+21%3A29%3A51Dan+Mitchell

Daley Machine Nervous: Political Realignment in the Works?

For some time now — here, here, and here — I have been arguing what at first must have seemed counterintuitive: that a great political realignment may be in the works.

Today, in The Washington Post, William M. Daley warns his fellow Democrats that they are in danger of bringing just such a realignment about. After alluding to the announced retirements of four centrist Democrats in the House and to Parker Griffith’s switch to the Republican side, Daley argues that “the Democratic Party — my lifelong political home — has a critical decision to make: Either we plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come.”

The political dangers of this situation could not be clearer.

Witness the losses in New Jersey and Virginia in this year’s off-year elections. In those gubernatorial contests, the margin of victory was provided to Republicans by independents — many of whom had voted for Obama. Just one year later, they had crossed back to the Republicans by 2-to-1 margins.

Witness the drumbeat of ominous poll results. Obama’s approval rating has fallen below 49 percent overall and is even lower — 41 percent — among independents. On the question of which party is best suited to manage the economy, there has been a 30-point swing toward Republicans since November 2008, according to Ipsos. Gallup’s generic congressional ballot shows Republicans leading Democrats. There is not a hint of silver lining in these numbers. They are the quantitative expression of the swing bloc of American politics slipping away.

Griffith and the Democrats who have decided to retire are, Daley says, “the truest canaries in the coal mine.”

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Tags: bailout, Bill Daley, cap-and-trade, centrist politics, Daley Machine
Posted Dec 24th 2009 at 11:01 am in Politics | 5193893 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/prahe/2009/12/24/daley-machine-nervous-political-realignment-in-the-works/Daley+Machine+Nervous%3A+Political+Realignment+in+the+Works%3F2009-12-24+19%3A01%3A45Paul+A.++Rahe

University of Michigan Study Confirms Link Between Financial Bailout and Corruption

Since Senators engaged in open extortion and bribery to enact Reid’s government-run healthcare plan, it is hardly newsworthy that Washington is riddled with corruption. But the magnitude of sleaze is probably far greater than most people realize. There is a new study from a couple of academics at the University of Michigan, who found significant relationships between lobbying and bailout money, as well as a greater chance of getting bailouts depending on a bank’s ties with either the Federal Reserve or key members of Congress. Hopefully, people across America will draw the obvious conclusion and realize that big government is inherently corrupting, as discussed in this video. Reuters has the details on this latest example of big government and malfeasance:

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Tags: bailout, corruption, Financial Crisis, Healthcare
Posted Dec 22nd 2009 at 1:11 pm in Economics, Healthcare, Obama, Politics | 5091492 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dmitchell/2009/12/22/university-of-michigan-study-confirms-link-between-financial-bailout-and-corruption/University+of+Michigan+Study+Confirms+Link+Between+Financial+Bailout+and+Corruption2009-12-22+21%3A11%3A28Dan+Mitchell

Better Living Through Defaulting: Everyone’s Ditching Their Mortgage

So let’s say you’re stuck in a house that the bank says is worth half a million, but the market says it’s worth only a quarter of that. What if it turned out you could walk away from it and rent not just another house, but a bigger house, for less money? What if four million of your friends figured this was a good idea, too? We’ll discuss this and more on today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, a daily podcast from The New Ledger on politics, policy and the marketplace with Francis Cianfrocca, brought to you by BigGovernment.com.

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Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

WSJ: Rethinking the American Dream
Bond Buyer Update
Dow Jones: Downgrades on Illinois Debt

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Tags: bailout, debt, defaulting, homeownership, mortgage
Posted Dec 11th 2009 at 8:25 am in Coffee and Markets, Economics | 4468224 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/newledger/2009/12/11/better-living-through-defaulting-everyones-ditching-their-mortgage/Better+Living+Through+Defaulting%3A+Everyone%27s+Ditching+Their+Mortgage2009-12-11+16%3A25%3A38The+New+Ledger

Coffee and Markets: The Retail Numbers and Federal Reserve Transparency

It’s another day with the Federal Reserve at the center of discussion as Ben Bernanke heads to New York City to give some significant remarks. Should the Fed be more transparent? Should it be audited? We’ll talk about that and how the markets respond to the latest retail report on the latest Coffee and Markets, a daily podcast from The New Ledger on politics, policy and the marketplace with Francis Cianfrocca, brought to you by BigGovernment.com.

Download Podcast | iTunes | Podcast Feed

You can subscribe to the podcast by following the links above, and if you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

AP: Stocks Rise on Retail Report
WSJ: The Fed and Transparency
David Ignatius: Dodd and the Fed
Cafe Hayek: Adam Smith and Financial Regulation
TNL: Chris Dodd’s Big Regulation Push

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Tags: audit, bailout, Ben Bernanke, Christopher Dodd, Economy
Posted Nov 16th 2009 at 9:03 am in Economics | 3164213 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/newledger/2009/11/16/coffee-and-markets-the-retail-numbers-and-federal-reserve-transparency/Coffee+and+Markets%3A+The+Retail+Numbers+and+Federal+Reserve+Transparency2009-11-16+16%3A03%3A57The+New+Ledger

The Real Axis of Evil: Washington, the Fed, and Wall Street

As Washington extends its reach farther into our lives and limits our freedoms, the Fed destroys the value of the dollar and our savings, and Wall Street continues to make billions of dollars using taxpayer money without creating any sustainable growth for the economy, Americans should begin to ask ourselves who our enemies really are. Sure, Iran, Syria, and North Korea are evil. I would love to see their regimes destroyed, but they haven’t really done anything to interfere with my life as far as I know. On the other hand, I can identify exactly the many ways that Washington, the Fed, and Wall Street are destroying our freedoms and our economy and stealing our and our children’s future.

Let’s begin with Washington. They want to take a broken health care system and make it worse by further injecting government. They’re going to raise taxes even though people are struggling with the worst economy in decades. They’ve started a job-killing trade war with China–our largest trading partner and our largest lender–to pacify Big Labor. They’ve given hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money to insolvent and poorly managed, but politically connected, Wall Street banks and Detroit car companies in the name of saving our economy. We’ve continued to lose millions of jobs anyway. They’ve spent additional hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on a stimulus that was supposed to create jobs. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says there will be jobs some day, but should we really believe him? This is the same guy who thought subprime lending wasn’t a problem. The same guy who thought it made sense to give billions to lender CIT. How did that work? Oh, right, they’re bankrupt now.

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Tags: american capitalism, bailout, Ben Bernanke, Charlie Gasparino, discount window
Posted Nov 12th 2009 at 8:03 am in Economics, Politics, Uncategorized | 2947430 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/cgrey/2009/11/12/the-real-axis-of-evil-washington-the-fed-and-wall-street/The+Real+Axis+of+Evil%3A+Washington%2C+the+Fed%2C+and+Wall+Street2009-11-12+15%3A03%3A49Christopher+Grey

Bailout May Be Helping to Generate Up to Half of Bank’s Profits

We will never know how many, if any, of the major banks would have failed without the TARP bailout package passed a year ago. Several banks were strong-armed into taking the money. We can be reasonably sure that Citigroup and Bank of America wouldn’t be the institutions they are today without some government hand-holding—actually, it is more like continuous CPR while giving blood and donating a kidney.

However, while we can’t know the counterfactual, we can assess how the liquidity infusions have decreased credit risk, lowering the cost of capital, and compare these savings to profits. And the stunning numbers show that up to nearly half of all profits from the top 18 banks are the result of Uncle Sam subsidizing the cost of credit.

Every day financial firms borrow money to conduct business. Just like with individuals and families, there is a cost to the credit in the form of an interest payment or fee. However, with a virtual government guarantee of security, the big financial institutions have been able to borrow at artificially reduced rates. Lenders to financial institutions know Uncle Sam has the back of the big boys on Wall Street. They’re sure to get their money back, based on current White House and Fed policy.

The problem is that this gives large financial institutions a competitive advantage over smaller business. Those smaller firms have to pay more for their credit. They don’t have the government guarantee. They are more risky. And while it is true that smaller firms will always have to pay more money to borrow than the larger firms, the government guarantee has widened the gap between the cost of credit for the smalls and bigs.

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Tags: bailout, banks, CERP, Credit Risk, Financial Institutions
Posted Oct 7th 2009 at 11:15 am in Economics, News, Obama, Politics | 1307430 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/arandazzo/2009/10/07/bailout-may-be-helping-to-generate-up-to-half-of-banks-profits/Bailout+May+Be+Helping+to+Generate+Up+to+Half+of+Bank%27s+Profits2009-10-07+18%3A15%3A14Anthony+Randazzo

Michael Moore Fails to Call Out Keith Olbermann’s Hypocrisy

Michael Moore discussed his new film on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann last week, which excoriates the 2008 financial bailouts, corporate welfare and various other flaws in a system in which the government gives favor to corporations that can afford lobbyists in Washington DC. Moore also calls capitalism “evil,” even when you strip away all the sweetheart deals with the government.

While his initial frustration with crony capitalism may be justified, while on Olbermann’s show, Moore completely failed to mention that General Electric, the company that keeps Olbermann on the air, received billions in bailout money last year. He also neglected to point out that Olbermann received a  $3.5 million pay raise around the same time that taxpayers paid to keep General Electric afloat. (Olbermann regularly scolds corporate employees who receive bonuses from bailed out companies.)

Despite calls to put his money where his mouth is and return his own bonus, Olbermann has remained silent. And while Moore is usually so quick to attack anyone benefiting from government-backed corporate profits,  he didn’t even mention his host’s own hypocrisy.

You see, to guys like Moore and Olbermann, it’s perfectly okay to make millions from taxpayers and capitalism, so long as it’s their bank account getting filled with the cash.

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Tags: bailout, capitalism, Capitalism: A Love Story, corporate welfare, crony capitalism
Posted Sep 28th 2009 at 6:30 am in Congress, Culture, Media Criticism | 951042 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/cmoody/2009/09/28/michael-moore-fails-to-call-out-keith-olbermanns-hypocrisy/Michael+Moore+Fails+to+Call+Out+Keith+Olbermann%27s+Hypocrisy+2009-09-28+13%3A30%3A53Chris+Moody