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Criticizing bailout use isn't productive
Allan Sloan is a senior editor-at-large at Fortune
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TEXT OF INTERVIEW
Steve Chiotakis: There's been a lot of criticism lately about banks taking government help. And then doing what they've always done: corporate junkets, sponsoring athletic events . . . acting all "corporatey."
Apparently, some in Congress don't like bailout money going to anything frivolous. But Fortune Magazine's Allan Sloan says there's nothing frivolous about boosting the overall economy.
Allan Sloan: People are angry. And I can see why people are angry. You know, they're losing their jobs, they're seeing people -- including maybe themselves -- getting their houses foreclosed on. And you hear a story about, you know, some evil company that has taken government bailout money and is off in some fancy place having a sales meeting, and it makes people angry. And I understand that.
Chiotakis: So what does the government then do to stop people from getting angry?
Sloan: Well, I mean the long run is you've got to fix the economy, but that's not going to happen, God knows, any time soon. What would be helpful is if the government actually decided to treat the people in this country like grown-ups instead of like children who need to be indulged and fed something. Now, I know a lot of people in the executive branch of the government are in fact grown-ups and they know how the world works. But in this environment, I don't think any of them dare -- which is their failing -- to get up and say look, we know you find this offensive, but if we're ever going to get our money back and these companies are ever going to function, there are certain things they do. And one of the things they do is have sales meetings.
Chiotakis: So how then does this affect the entire company?
Sloan: Well, it affects the economy indirectly, because if you assume that the companies we're talking about are important, which is why they're getting bailout money, right? And if you get in their way and make them less profitable, you're hurting in the end the chance for these companies to lend more money or to expand or . . . and to earn enough to pay back the money that they borrowed. And let me hasten to say that I am not some shill for corporate America. I'm the guy who's always finding problems and writing about tax dodgers and things like taht because that's what I do. But even to me, this turning every private plane trip into some sort of asocial act, you don't really accomplish anything except to vent and make people less forthcoming with the government, and less inclined to be involved in anything that involves business trusting the government. And that's not a good thing.
Chiotakis: Fortune Magazine's Allan Sloan. Allan, thank you.
Sloan: You're welcome, Steve.
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At best Allan Sloane's usual commentary reflects a Corporate Boot Licking mentality that wastes about 3 to 4 minutes of my personal time as I drive to a job alot harder and less paid than his. I never really resented his "Let Them Eat Cake" attitude until his sham of what he in his delusional state of mind pawns off as responsible reporting. But now his attitude which really reflects what the so called "upper" classes believe about us "peons" makes it personal. NO...the average working Joe/Jane isn't a pouty child not cognizant of the real world. WE are hard working people that are challenged daily to make less and less money stretch further and further. We try to be devoted spouses,parents and children to our aging and equally financially strapped parents. We try to get medical care for our sick at the sacrifice of our homes and our peace of minds. Every day we look at the wolf lingering at our doors and the wolves that have destroyed our economy and still have the courage to bare our teeth back...AND believed that we as a citizen are responsible of bringing our country back again. Mr Sloane...I see nothing of you that even begins to resemble the backbone and courage that the every day people that I work beside,live beside or rely upon to help me in my daily needs...store clerk,sanitation workers..teachers. You and those of your ilk and pathetic mentality ARE the problem and nothing near the solution. I wish upon you the loss of your job..your savings...your pension...the loss of your home and whatever else you have that makes you believe that you are valuable. Then maybe, once you are forced to face the REAL world and how it works...you may learn a modicum of humility...and even a chance at humanity and personal integrity...Yes..I'm making it personal
I have been in a tizzy for 24 hours, dying to write to Marketplace about Allan Sloane and his outrageous commentary about being "grown-ups"...showing once again that, even in these times, a commentator [Sloane] who is evidently strongly invested in the continuation of business-as-usual simply cannot see that in his outlook "grown-ups" = "Big Boys" -- you know: the Big Kids, who are at best disdainful of those who are not in the cool group that Understands How Things Work and, at worst, bullies. Although Sloan says he has criticized business excesses in his writings, with THIS cool group of Business Big Boys he nevertheless is clearly proud to be associated. Fundamental Attribution Error, anyone? [I understand that he does write for a business publication, after all...] The end of my tizzy came, however, when after being away from the computer I sat down today to see that other listeners had already sent wonderful comments yesterday! That fact cheered me mightily. The good side of this awful crisis is that people are speaking up to say that they are no longer suckers for the lines the Big Kids have been handing them all this time about how the economy works...PS I love Marketplace!
Sorry Mr. Sloan but I must disagree. As many here have said, the problem isn't that these companies need to have sales meetings, the problem is that they're having them at expensive, four-star resorts. Haven't they ever heard of Holiday Inn?
Millions of dollars of taxpayer money have been poured into failed investment and insurance companies. Companies who have retained the very same educated clowns who were unable to discern that investments titled "sub-prime mortgages" might just be liable to be toxic. Just business as usual. Why change what’s working so well for them? Why shouldn't our great Father in Washington treat us as his children?
Sloan's comment that people complaining about sales meetings are being 'children' was condescending at best, if not actually insulting. If anything, it's the other way around.
Children insist on having their toys, their goodies and their special treatment.
Adults know when they have to spend only what's necessary, and do their best to live within their means.
I agree with the majority of comments here. I don't think there'd be many complaints if corporations held their sales meetings in the conference room at a local midrange hotel, or a banquet facility, or something similarly modest. The company I used to work for put on an annual winter training school at just such modest facilities, and I never saw where it did us - or our customers - any harm. But holding a "sales meeting" at an out-of-town luxury resort? On the taxpayers' dime? If the corporate officers planning these things think this is so valuable and necessary, maybe they should pay for it out of their own pocket.
Sloan's comment that people complaining about sales meetings are being 'children' was condescending at best, if not actually insulting. If anything, it's the other way around.
Children insist on having their toys, their goodies and their special treatment.
Adults know when they have to spend only what's necessary, and do their best to live within their means.
I agree with the majority of comments here. I don't think there'd be many complaints if corporations held their sales meetings in the conference room at a local midrange hotel, or a banquet facility, or something similarly modest. The company I used to work for put on an annual winter training school at just such modest facilities, and I never saw where it did us - or our customers - any harm. But holding a "sales meeting" at an out-of-town luxury resort? On the taxpayers' dime? If the corporate officers planning these things think this is so valuable and necessary, maybe they should pay for it out of their own pocket.
I was eager to hear what Allan Sloan would say after Steve Chiotakis' introduction. I was angered by Allan's remarks. I felt I was being patronized, being told I didn't quite understand how the "big boys" did business. I understand that businesses need to have sales meetings, but what I don't understand is how any adroit business person could condone spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a lavish function in an economic slump - especially when they are spending taxpayer funds.
I was reminded again of the oligarchy that parades as democracy in our country. Perhaps this most recent cannibalization of the 401Ks and IRAs of the bottom 90% of our society will provoke some to question the authority the corporations have wrestled from the citizens. Campaign finance reform, anyone?
Yes, I am angry...Not because I lost my job or because of forecloure as Sloan mentioned...I am angry because I have been financially responsible and am pay for everyone else's mistakes. Because of the uncertainty I have cut back on spending and expect the private corporations that are getting money (my money)from the government to do the same.
I am not naive to not understand these businesses do need to conduct meetings but they don't need to spend money on lavish trips to resorts cities. Conference/video conferencing can work just as well in most cases. I am angry because they are showing no financial restraint and the taxpayers are footing the bill.
I was so - yes, angry, I almost drove off the road this morning while listening to this story. By posing the question as one of "how can the governmenrt stop people from getting angry" instead of how can the government force coporate recipients of taxpayers' money to spend it responsibly, Mr Chotatakis set up Mr. Sloane's patronizing response.
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