Bailout a windfall for bankers, if not borrowers

Mike Mcintire
January 18, 2009
At the Ritz-Carlton in Palm Beach, Florida, last November, John Hope III, the chairman of Whitney National Bank in New Orleans, stood before a ballroom full of Wall Street analysts and explained how his bank intended to use its $300 million in U.S. government bailout money.

"Make more loans?" Hope said. "We're not going to change our business model or our credit policies to accommodate the needs of the public sector as they see it to have us make more loans."

As the incoming Obama administration decides how to fix the economy, the troubles of the banking system have become particularly vexing. →