Six banks with $540 billion in bailout money still flying 27 corporate jets

Pig-Headed Corporate Policies


Old habits still die slowly, and take a long time to change. Of the money already spent from the corporate bailout, an estimated $540 billion went to six financial institutions, and the money is being used in part, to operate 27 corporate jets. I may be the only one who feels this way, but I don't think the survival of the global economy depends on using taxpayer money to pay for financial executives to fly on their own corporate jets.

Here are the six financial institutions and the amount of taxpayer money they received and the number of corporate jets they're still flying:



- American International Group Inc (NYSE: AIG). $150 billion, seven corporate jets

- Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C). $330 billion, four jets. (The $340 billion includes Citi's initial $25 billion in TARP money plus its more recent $305 billion in loan guarantees.)

- Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC). $25 billion, one jet

- Bank of America (NYSE: BAC). $25 billion, nine jets -- its CEO Ken Lewis used $127,643 worth of its corporate jets

- JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) . $25 billion, four jets -- its CEO Jamie Dimon's personal use of its corporate aircraft totaled $211,182 in 2007 Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS). $10 billion, two jets -- its CEO John Mack's personal use of its

- Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS). $10 billion, two jets -- its CEO John Mack's personal use of its corporate aircraft totaled $358,882 in 2007



Factor in the amount that will be paid in bonuses to executives, even though the bonuses for 2008 will be down by 50%, that amounts to about $16.6 billion worth of taxpayer money going to the very people who already got a boost from the U.S government. I've heard people trying to defend the indefensible by arguing that their executive play toys are flying offices. If trimming down their operations is part of the conditions of the bailout, then they can start by flying first class on a commercial flight or sit in their offices and use online video-conferencing instead of flying - and that's free advice...lol

Take a page from out of Diddy's book...