Banks Tell Financial Services Committee They're Lending

Something ain't right. Nothing's right in financial "services."
It almost seems prudent to let the banking system explode.

CNN: Top executives from eight of the nation's largest financial institutions told Congress Wednesday that they are continuing to lend, even as banks have come under severe scrutiny in recent weeks about their use of billions of dollars in government aid.

But skeptical legislators weren't buying it.

At a closely-watched hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, CEOs from such embattled firms as Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) defended their actions since taking hold of $165 billion last fall, adding that without government assistance, credit would be even harder to obtain.

"We are still lending, and we are lending far more because of the TARP program," Bank of America Chairman and CEO Ken Lewis said in his prepared remarks.

Representative Maxine Waters questions CEOS who increased credit card rates after receiving bailout money:

More grilling:

Obama in Virginia Talking Jobs

See Tim Kaine and Obama's remarks about the consequences of falling bridges here.

Swamp: Today, while House and Senate leaders attempt to hammer out an agreement on an economic stimulus that came out of the House at $819 billion and came out of the Senate at $838 billion -- and conflict in many key ways -- Obama will take a short hop down the road to Springfield, Va., using a construction site there to tout job creation.

The Virginia governor and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tim Kaine, will join the president in Springfield.

Tomorrow, Obama will be in Peoria, Illinois to celebrate Lincoln's birthday. He will also visit the Caterpillar plant.
Meanwhile, the house and the senate are munching on the two versions of the stimulus bill trying to turn it into one and live at CNN, Barney Frank's Financial Services committee is grilling bank executives about misspent money.
Obama at construction site in Virginia:

Barney Frank Hosts CEO Barbecue Next Week

I hope we get to see this on C-SPAN.

Patt Morrison: Next week, when Barney Frank starts hauling fat-cat CEOs before his House Financial Services Committee, I want him wearing a barbecue apron. Instead of a gavel, I want him wielding a barbecue fork the size of a trident. By the time the grilling's over, I want ... I want a lot.

I want groveling. I want show-trial sweating and stammering. I want their nine-figure bonus checks endorsed over to the rest of us. I want my 401(k) money back. I want blood; I'm a vegetarian, but I'd make an exception for a smoking plate of CEO en brochette.

Political scientists call this a "public mood" moment, when a focal incident like the Olympics or 9/11 fuses a nation of hundreds of millions of identities into one public identity.

UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck tells me that, in this case, the public mood is outrage on the part of good citizens -- that's us -- over the misdeeds of bad citizens.

It's embarrassing to think that we share a country with these rich dimwits. As Frank told the bankers: "People really hate you. ... You have to help us deal with that. You have to avoid being stupid." Read the rest.