All Northern First Bank wants to do is have some fun
Posted by breadwinner on February 25th, 2009
Northern Trust Bank. Bailout house party!! Whaaaaat!!
What would you do if you received a 1.5 billion dollar bailout check from the government? If you’re Northern First Bank, you head to LA and throw several huge parties — one of which features peaceful pop rocker Sheryl Crow — and then have the audacity (the bad kind, not the Obama kind) to defend your actions. You’d also probably layoff about 450 employees, but Sheryl Crow is SO worth it.
But we should all use less toilet paper, right, Sheryl?
In my opinion, this little weekend getaway is just another amazing performance of unabashed fiscal dickishness. But in a press statement released by the bank, the parties were defended as part of the Northern Trust Open, an event that the bank is locked into hosting for five years. I doubt that their contract stipulates that kind of spending outside the actual sponsorship cost. Basically, Northern Trust is claiming that the funds used to foot the bill for this weekend came out of their “operating expenses”, which we are all supposed to believe is not at all related to their government bailout money. That and they got locked into this sponsorship long before they received the bailout.
It gets better. The weekend highlights, which were detailed by TMZ so be sure to grab yourself one giant grain of salt, include:
• One fancy dinner at the Ritz, followed by a performance by the group Chicago
• One private hangar to host a second dinner for their important guests, including a performance by Earth, Wind and Fire
• One private party at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, which is where Ms. Crow later performed
• And finally, one cocktail party at the Loews where female guests received trinkets from TIFFANY & CO.
Bling bling, bitches.
I can't hate on Peter.
Northern Trust is on FIRE!
According to the bank’s statement, “The Northern Trust Open is an integral part of Northern Trust’s global marketing activities, focusing on retaining and growing business with existing clients, and attracting new clients.” So in this economy, Northern Trust feels totally cool about laying off 450 people and then spending taxpayer money on a golf tourney, several celebrity dinner parties, Tiffany’s trinkets, and even paying for a hundred or so “company guests” to stay overnight at various fancy-shmancy LA hotels. If it makes you happy, Northern Trust.
Oh and they also made it clear in their statement that they only received that $1.5 billion from the government because everyone else was doing it. Not because they needed or asked for the money in the first place. I’m sure that makes those 450 laid-off employees feel better.
In their defense, a seemingly growing number of companies are being completely reckless and irresponsible with their post-bailout and/or post-layoff spending, so why the hell not?
***UPDATE*** Our friends at TMZ reported yesterday that Northern Trust Bank is now giving back the $1.5 billion they received as a bailout. It’s like ITE déjà vu: get bailout, spend frivolously, get caught, return money. Works for legislators avoiding their taxes, big, big companies, nearly everyone! Who’s next? And basically, due to the actions of Northern Trust, Senator John Kerry introduced legislation that prevents banks receiving bailout money from sponsoring entertainment events. Sad that something so gosh-darned obvious to people with consciouses would require legislation…
Tags: bailout, chicago, layoffs, los angeles, northern trust open, sheryl crow, tiffany & co
Sheryl Crow sucks.
TMZ has more to tell, of course: http://www.tmz.com/2009/02/25/sheryl-crow-that-bailout-cash-wasnt-enough/
I wish Peter Cetera and Sharyl Crow would have a baby and that baby grew up and had a band of his/her own. And their band would be an Earth and Wind cover band. How awesome.
err.. Sheryl….
[...] This is the easy one. Some quick examples of how greed has stayed strong during this economic shit tsunami are HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE. [...]