According to Mitt Romney, "the banks" aren't bad people. In fact, they're just as scared as you are of the Obama Administration and their job-killing regulations and "uncertainty." Or something.
Romney was standing outside a Fannie Mae-foreclosed home in a struggling neighborhood telling a small crowd why they're having so much trouble. "In this case, it's because of the banks," he explained. "Well, the banks aren't bad people. They're just overwhelmed right now."
During a Monday roundtable with business owners struggling in Florida's hobbled housing market, the former Massachusetts governor told the group that their troubles with banks came because the lenders were worried about staying in business.
"The banks are scared to death, of course," he said. "They're feeling the same thing that you're feeling. And so they just want to pretend that all this is just going to get paid some day."
Yes. The banks are terrified of going out of business and they're feeling the same pain the average American is right now!
Meanwhile, in the real world, Wall Street and "the banks" are doing better than ever.
Wall Street firms — independent companies and the securities-trading arms of banks — are doing even better. They earned more in the first 2 1/2 years of the Obama administration than they did during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, industry data show. [...]
The largest banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, earned $34 billion in profit in the first half of the year, nearly matching what they earned in the same period in 2007 and more than in the same period of any other year.
Securities firms — the trading arms of big banks and hundreds of other independent firms — have fared even better. They’ve generated at least $83 billion in profit during the past 2 1/2 years, compared with $77 billion during the entire Bush administration, according to data from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
Corporate profits rose 17 percent in 2010 and 22 percent in 2011. Wall Street specificly has raked in more cash during under the first half of the first term of the Obama Administration than during the entire Bush Administration.
If they really are scared, they need pull up their big-boy pants.
By the way, did Romney mention to the crowd he was speaking to outside of the Fannie-foreclosed home that he has investments in Fannie? Investments that benefited from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
(via Nicole)