The Bottom of the Ocean

Having worked with small business owners involving their working capital financing and commercial real estate financing for many years, it is remarkable to see how differently the public is suddenly treating the banking industry. Most of the negative public perception is being properly directed at banks like Bank of America, Chase and Citicorp (which collectively have already absorbed hundreds of billions of dollars in federal bailout payments and loan guarantees). Even bank employees seem to feel this way — when a woman working for Chase in New York lost her job a few weeks ago, she described her new and profound relief at not having to tell people that she worked for Chase Bank.

I recall hearing the following joke about 20-30 years ago — What do you call 10 lawyers on the bottom of the ocean? … A good start. Now just substitute “bankers” for “lawyers” and you will have a good representation of how far bankers have fallen in the public eye. It does appear that bankers have become the new lawyers in terms of public anger and ridicule directed toward them. I’m sure that this (rightfully) angers the many bankers who have done absolutely nothing to deserve this — if I can make one suggestion about how the good guys remaining among the banking crowd can help improve their standing, here it is: it would probably help if the “good” bankers were a little more candid in their criticism of the “bad” bankers. I for one find it personally objectionable that even the Secretary of the Treasury (a banker to the core) has publicly said little, if anything, suggesting that bailout funds have been used irresponsibly by the Masters of the Universe that caused the economy to implode in the first place. To update the Ronald Reagan quote about government solving problems, the current perspective might be — “Banks are not the solution to our problem. They ARE the problem.”