If you ever needed a clearer example why we don’t want e.g., the House of Representatives making investment decisions, this is it:
NBC has obtained a letter signed by six house Representatives from New York State sent to Timothy Geithner, asking the Treasury Secretary to disregard the call for Citigroup to break its 20-year, $400 million investment for the naming rights to the New York Mets stadium.
The letter comes in response to a note sent to Geithner two weeks ago by Representatives Ted Poe and Dennis Kucinich.
The note asked Geithner to recommend that the contract be dissolved in the best interest of public policy, given that Citigroup had received $45 billion in public funds from the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).
“We believe this would set a terrible precedent of unfairly singling out a specific company and particular form of advertising for a politically popular reason,” the letter states. “This attack has broader implications on all sports marketing, and would certainly have a negative impact on all media outlets such as television, radio, cable, and newspapers.”
Of course, it is hard not to look hypocritical if you find this bemusingly offensive but have no problem with the likes of Maxine Waters deciding who gets a loan and who doesn’t.
NY Reps To Geithner: Don’t Kill Citi-Mets Stadium Deal [CNBC]
Unleash the Lycans
Citi not only abuses taxpayer funds for entertainment, evidently it abuses funds to bribe Congressmen.
baseball sucks.
Citi doesnt need to bribe anyone here. They would be more than glad to bail out of or at least substantially renegotiate that terrible deal.
EP,
C’mon. Leave the Amazin’s alone. You obviously never shook hands with Cowbell Man, and your sense of neglect has reached its peak.
Given the makeup of the the chokin’ Mets roster Banco Popular Field is more appropriate anyway
I wonder if anyone’s ever done a study linking the inking of a stadium rights deal and share performance.
I’m willing to bet it’s a leading indicator for imminent ‘badness’ e.g. Adelphia, Enron, Citi, Reliant.
Kind of like constructing a new corporate HQ.
How about Barney Frank Field?
“the likes of Maxine Waters”
You mean, strong African-American women who’ve never been to the Harvard Club?
@9
I think EP meant financially illiterate populists with no clue what they’re talking about or sense of cognitive dissonance.
@10 – You are correct, Sir!
@ 7
Didn’t the University of Kansas name something after Tom Kivisto/Semgroup?
-Nominate me
@10
home run.
Y’all are right. Let’s let John Thain and Ken Lewis decide.
Mets
I”m tellin you, we need Trevelyan, we need the Goldeneye Satellite, its our only hope!
The funny thing about this, is it is a continuation of the populist notion (perpuated by wall street and state and federal governments) that C is not insolvent.
Check out what is going on in California, then extrapoliate to the whole country.
That shit show in washington today made me want to go long ammo and physical gold.
Someone should create an ETF that would also us to 3x short the congressional financial services committee.
As for Maxine Waters, she has as much business being on that committee as i do being a forward for the knicks (i am a 5’2 chick).