As It Stands: It's Time to Stop the Government Gravy Train for Corporations

       By Dave Stancliff
       We’ve bailed out the bankers on Wall Street.
       We’ve bailed out Freddie Mack and Fannie Mae.
       We’ve bailed out the Big Three.
       Now the Commercial Real Estate Properties want money.
       When is someone going to bail out me?
       Like Janis Joplin, all I want is a Mercedes Benz.
       Seriously, when do the handouts end?
       When we have no more money to hand out? No, because that’s what we’re doing now. The government is busy printing funny money and spending it faster than it takes the bills to dry.
       This latest example of shoddy management practices begging for relief, comes from Richard Cowden, managing editor of the Real Estate Law and Industry Report. He told NPR “that it’s been a train wreck for the commercial real estate market,” during a recent interview.
       Cowden was talking about getting loans. Whether you are a plumber looking to buy a $20,000 truck or a real estate company looking to refinance a $20 million office building, the credit crisis has made it harder to get a loan now. The banks are giving out less loans this year and playing the Grinch, even though they got their cash infusion from Congress.
       Experts are talking about $400 billion of commercial mortgages that will mature in 12 months. Why should that bother you and I? Michael Grupe, a vice president with the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, says the pipeline for funneling cash into the system has slowed down. “It’s not like there’s been a mild slowdown here. The pipeline is frozen. No money is coming out,” Grupe told the press.
       So now we have to wonder what that means. What is going to happen when hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of commercial real estate can’t get refinanced when it comes due? “We don’t want to find out, “ Grupe said.
         Maybe “we” ought to find out. I’m sick and tired of big business getting massive loans because they can. What happened to declaring bankruptcy these days? It use to be when you couldn’t pay your bills as a businessman your only recourse was to declare bankruptcy.
         Now, for reasons that I suspect are corruption at it’s finest, the big boys are lining up with sob stories and trying to scare Congress and the American people into giving them a handout.
Grupe and others in the real estate industry have been meeting with officials at the Federal Reserve and asking the government for help.
         I’m sure getting tired of hearing that the only way to save the economy is to print more bad money for bad businessmen, who will go on being bad, regardless of the amount given. CEOs are getting their obscene bonus checks while the pink slips trickle down to the rank and file.
         Economists are starting to admit that our current situation is as bad, if not worse, than the Great Depression. We all know that it lingered on for years, and what we’re facing now looks like a repeat in the worst way.
         Whose next? Giant entertainment industries like Disneyland? I can just see Goofy stating Disney’s case in Congress. He’ll probably blend in there nicely.
          We can’t keep bailing out every big business that comes asking for funds. It’s just not possible. Businesses are going to have to tough this out and come up with a future model for doing business. But if they keep getting handouts for doing a shoddy job, where’s the incentive for them to change their ways?
         As It Stands, call it tough love, but I think it’s time to stop the government gravy train.