Banks Just Wanna Have Fun

Is anyone going to let bankers have fun anymore?

First, Citigroup is forced to re-think its purchase of a $50 million corporate jet. Then, the $400 million it pledged to put its name on the new home of the New York Mets is called into question because the bank has received billions of dollars in federal aid. Now, Wells Fargo can’t send its top employees to Las Vegas for four days to wine and dine them as a reward for their hard work.

What’s next? No more executive bathrooms? Shared BlackBerrys? A requirement that all out-of-town meals be eaten at restaurants with a value menu?

Isn’t Wells Fargo stimulating the Las Vegas economy by spending oodles of cash on hotels, food, spa treatments and who knows what else? Won’t Citi’s corporate jet keep a pilot employed? Think of all the gas the plane guzzles. Citi’s going to have to pay for that, too. This plane will stimulate the economy in a way that flying in the middle seat at the back of a Southwest Airlines flight will not.

At least let’s hope that the West Michigan Whitecaps decide to offer the proposed “Fifth Third burger” at its home games this year. The burger, named for ballpark sponsor Fifth Third Bank, was described by a Michigan newspaper as “a monstrosity of five beef patties weighing five-thirds of a pound, dressed with sliced Spam, sausage gravy, fried eggs and a gigantic pickle.”

How much could the Wells Fargo junket have cost? A few hundred thousand dollars at the most, perhaps?

The government has bailed out more than 100 financial institutions. How closely are their expenses being monitored? Do those banks need Treasury Secretary Geithner’s signature on an office supply order? If the federal government is going to control how Wells Fargo spends that amount of money, it should just end the charade and nationalize the banking system.