Northern Trust Bust
Bailout blunders multiply
Sheryl Crow campaigns for change.
It's bad enough that executives at Chicago-based Northern Trust threw a series of lavish parties in Los Angeles after receiving federal bailout money.
It's even worse that they had Sheryl Crow - ugh - perform at one these parties. (Hey Sheryl, was your check just signed over from the U.S. Treasury?)
Most galling is that Northern Trust didn't even need our money - they were "participating" in the federal TARP program "as a healthy bank."
Given that Northern Trust has no need to use taxpayer money to actually, you know, make loans, we suspect that money is being used in a variety of other nefarious ways, such as:
- Upgrade of program that steals a penny from every customer's account each week
- Development of even finer print for all loan agreements and bank fees
- Raises for staff mathematicians who have developed more sophisticated algorithms for charging interest
- Added another jet to the corporate fleet; named it Sheryl
- Funded research into ATMs that actually reach into your pocket and take your money
- Launched takeover bid for Southern, Eastern and Western Trusts
- Hired additional security to walk out the next 450 workers they fire
- Approved new marketing campaign built around the theme "The bank you can trust."
- Commissioned research on how to become a "sick" bank and get even more federal bailout money
- Golden tees for qualifying executives
Steve Rhodes is the proprietor of The Beachwood Reporter, a Chicago-centric news and culture review. You can subscribe to his NBCChicago.com RSS feed here.
