A bad idea that just keeps getting worse.

Fast forward to today, and that same bank is begging to give the money back. The chairman offers to write a check, now, with interest. He's been sitting on the cash for months and has felt the dead hand of government threatening to run his business and dictate pay scales. He sees the writing on the wall and he wants out. But the Obama team says no, since unlike the smaller banks that gave their TARP money back, this bank is far more prominent. The bank has also been threatened with "adverse" consequences if its chairman persists. That's politics talking, not economics.

Think about it: If Rick Wagoner can be fired and compact cars can be mandated, why can't a bank with a vault full of TARP money be told where to lend? And since politics drives this administration, why can't special loans and terms be offered to favored constituents, favored industries, or even favored regions? Our prosperity has never been based on the political allocation of credit -- until now.

Banks also cannot give the money back because it would be "sending the wrong signal." The signal that there is some health in the financial sector and that banks on an individual basis are ready to move forward and get on with business. Of course, that's not going to happen until this Admnistration and Congress extracts its pound of flesh and remakes the industry in its image. And isn't that a comforting thought?

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