Dead Banks in '09: 17 and Counting

ABC News by John Hendren | Mar. 8, 2009 (News Report)

Republican senators urged the White House on Sunday to let some of the nation's biggest banks go under.

Republican senators urged the White House on Sunday to let some of the nation's biggest banks go under. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) agreed in an interview with Fox, saying, "Some of these banks have to fail. "
(ABC News Graphic )"I think that they've got to close some big banks. They don't want to do it," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. told ... Full Story »

Posted by Michael Bugeja

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Michael Bugeja
3.5
 by Michael Bugeja - Mar. 8, 2009

A politicized article concerning the sorry state of the U.S. economy, with Republicans saying let bad banks fail and Democrats arguing that blue collar citizens will be hurt the hardest if that happens. The reporter fails to note polls in which most Americans find the bailout distasteful. Worse, Democrats are doing what the GOP did under Bush and Bernanke, but ABC News doesn't touch that issue because it distracts from the slanted political theme.

This is your world without objective journalism. Rather than gather facts about a vital topic, John Hendren merely quotes Republicans who make their case concerning letting banks fail. But because the story is politicized, Democratic readers and reviewers will dislike it. Fact-based journalism has a place at the table in a Democracy, but the seat these days is empty.

The end of that era could mean a permanent change in Americans’ lifestyles, Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist at San Francisco’s Golden Gate University, told ABC. “Consumers have absolutely pulled back and they have become very focused on what is necessary and what is basic,” she said. “So consumers have moved into a frugal new era.” A new, more frugal era could also mean a slower, longer recovery for the nation’s economy, economists said. One thing consumers have largely stopped buying is American cars. That has had a ripple effect on Chrysler and General Motors. Both are expected to seek billions of dollars more in a second round of federal bailouts.

Let the car companies fail, too, not because of unions, but because overpaid CEOs of U.S. cars created the concept of planned obsolescence—the breakdown of cars after 60 months when payments were made—while Toyota and Honda were making cars built for 200,000 miles.

Michael posted this story.

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