There’s been a lot of talk in the news today and over the weekend about Obama meeting with the heads of the largest banks today.  He’s having a little sit down in Washington with over a dozen bank heads from Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Bank of America Corp., U.S. Bancorp, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, etc, to supposedly read them the riot act about lending to small and medium size businesses.

The main thrust, which he alluded to over the weekend on television when he called the heads of the banks (the people he called “fat cats” on national television), is that these banks largely created the current economic crisis, were bailed out with hundreds of billions of dollars in tax payer money, got back on their feet, paid out huge bonus to their executives, but now aren’t stepping up to the plate to lend money again, helping put the 10% of unemployed Americans back to work.  He’s also more than a little peeved that these banks aren’t jumping on the bandwagon to support the Consumer Financial Protection Agency that cleared the House last week, but are instead spending millions lobbying against it.  Banks on the other hand argue that Obama is greatly oversimplifying the issues at hand, that it’s more complicated than just saying “okay, we’re going to lend money again”, and that the tighter lending standards are necessary to keep the country from going into another economic whirlpool of defaulted loans.

Michael Steele, the Chairman of the Republic Party, agreed with the bankers that returning to the loose lending practices of the past would be disastrous.  He instead suggested an alternative to irresponsible lending by saying “Let’s eliminate the capital gains tax, reduce the unemployment tax and give some incentives for small businesses.”

So who’s right?  Do the “fat cat bankers” need to open the floodgates of cash?  Do we need less regulation for the banking industry so they can make their own corrections?  Should we give small and medium size business owners a break on taxes and instead incentivize them?  In my opinion it’s a little of all of the above.  Let’s hope these talks bring some cooperation rather than the typical blame game, because that’s the only thing that’s going to benefit the common man.

So here’s my open letter to bank executives, Obama, and everyone else with a say in this:

To whom it may concern,

Please relax lending standards, but do it responsibly.  There is middle ground between the loose and fast practices of the early ‘90s and the almost complete lack of lending now, find that middle ground for the sake of the 10% of the country out of work, the hundreds of thousands of people who have applied for mortgage modifications and have been denied, the business owners working hard to turn a profit and create and maintain jobs who desperately need funds to grow, and everyone else who is just fine right now, but won’t be if the economy doesn’t turn around.  Obama, please stop playing the blame game and focus on responsible solutions to unemployment and practical banking regulation.  Congress, for the love of all that’s good and decent, fix the mess you created with the Credit Card Reform Act.  By giving in to lobbyists you’ve created a situation where the banks are killing us with fees and interest rate hikes while destroying our credit with lower credit limits before the new rules go into effect next year.

There’s a way out of this economic mess, work together to find it for the good of everyone rather than covering yourselves.  Be unselfish for once.  Turn this all around before it’s too late.

Regards,

Wil Chiera