The Public Trough 1
You can’t make this stuff up:
The possibility of more government assistance is likely to stir new worries about the bank’s health in a city that has already seen its second-biggest bank, Wachovia, acquired by San Francisco’s Wells Fargo. Bank of America is in the midst of slashing up to 42,500 jobs worldwide and Wells Fargo is expected to cut its work force here as well.
In other news, Secretary of the Treasury Paulson et familia wants a cash-strapped city to build them a stadium:
In Portland, Merritt Paulson, the 35-year-old son of the US Treasury secretary, is 80% owner of the Portland Timbers – a second-division professional soccer team that has its sights set on Major League Soccer – and the Portland Beavers, a Triple-A baseball team. His father, who’s reportedly worth $700m himself, owns the other 20% of the two teams.
The Paulsons have agreed to fork over the $40m MLS franchise fee but argue they need $85m in public money to renovate the local PGE Park into a soccer-only stadium and to build the Beavers a new stadium at a separate location.
January 15, 2009 at 11:03 am
Outrage would be a good catagory for this one.
Let the Paulson’s build their own stadium. The city shouldn’t.