Who Do You Trust
It all comes down to who do you trust.
Since the completion of last week’s Northern Trust Open golf tournament, newspapers and television media talking heads have been hammering the sponsoring financial institution for allegedly wasting taxpayers’ money on lavish travel expenses, entertainment and accommodations. Story after scurrilous story is disseminated instructing taxpayers on the appropriate level of outrage they should be feeling.
Perhaps I wasn’t as informed as I should have been or maybe my alarm didn’t go off that day, but I completely missed the voting for spokesman of the taxpayers. My congratulations to all of them on apparently winning that contest.
Their sententious pieces regarding Northern Trust, while certainly in step with the blanket vilipend treatment most financial institutions are currently receiving from the press, is not only naïve it is inane.
I have absolutely no personal interest in Northern Trust financially or otherwise. But even a brief look through their books would allow a casual observer to note their excellent balance sheet and successful business strategy. Comparing Northern Trust to JP Morgan Chase or other much smaller banks, as many have done, may help to stoke the flames of indignation but is factually extraneous.
Northern Trust did indeed accept $1.6 billion in TARP funds, but it was done as a means to insulate rather than to bail. It was also done by consensus so as not to call attention to the banks that truly needed the cash influx to keep from going toes up. With over $3 trillion in assets under custody and over $575 billion in assets under investment management, the $1.6 billion received is a mere fraction of their overall value. A value they continue to nurture and grow.
As the liberal Democrat congress and their cohorts in the media continue to demand that the CEO’s of financial institutions use the self service pumps to fill their American made hybrids, Northern Trust continues to gain market share through sound business practices and targeted business expenses.
Northern committed to the golf tournament damned by these ne’er-do-wells long in advance of the current market meltdown and as a good and reliable business partner kept up their end of the bargain. In a time when confidence in financial institutions has dropped quicker than an Oldsmobile in the Chappaquiddick, Northern Trust used this opportunity to entertain their business clientele and assure them that they are still a strong viable financial institution that appreciates their clients continued support.
The president and his faithful flock in congress have repeatedly justified the $1.2 trillion in new earmarked spending as a way to stimulate the economy by claiming that you have to spend money to make money. To this the media applauds with breathless admiration and agreement. But when a business that is in the business of making money does the exact same thing they are held up to ridicule and censure.
Unlike the story writers and news anchors that continue to mete out contrived outrage without even a scant sense of facts, fairness or economic reality, I do not speak for America’s taxpayer’s in toto. But as a taxpayer myself I would much rather my tax dollars went to the banausic endeavors of a Northern Trust, where they may actually stimulate a profitable return on the investment, than to the torpor pork barrel policies of congress, who in large part contributed to this financial meltdown with their mismanagement of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and have them spend my money on NASA space shuttles, digital television converter boxes and tattoo removal machines, all in the name economic stimulus.
As if from Stephen Vincent’s story “The Devil and Daniel Webster”, Northern Trust has notified the Fed of their intention to return the TARP funds and reclaim their corporate soul rather than to foolishly abandon their business practices to satisfy this congressional and media feeding frenzy. They may also want to suggest an appropriate deposit area into which the money could be inserted.
Perhaps the Obama administration can use this returned cash to pay off the $160 million they spent on the inauguration party.
Now there’s a guy who knows how to entertain.
