Under-performing banks that are politically connected received more bailout funds, according to a study by the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

According to the report (.pdf), banks located in districts with House members serving on financial committees had a 26 percent increase in the funding they received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Likewise, bank executives holding a board seat at a Federal Reserve Bank increased their likelihood of receiving bailout money by 31 percent.

Applications for the largest TARP initiative, the Capital Purchase Program, are reviewed by the Federal Reserve–presenting a potential conflict of interest when bank executives are on the board. CPP aided 681 financial institutions with $204 billion as of September 2009.

The study also found that banks that made campaign contributions and spent more money on lobbying received more money from the government bailout.

via Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group.

And average citizens, who really deserve to be bailed out, get nothing. Nothing!

Over the past eighteen months, I and others (e.g., Sam Tanenhaus) have written that conservatism is dead. I’ve been asked a few times whether I still believe it. Intellectually, absolutely: the August tea parties, the extremist language on the Capitol steps, the Palin self-promotional orgy, even the lockstep voting habits of congressional Republicans, are all symptoms of a debased movement composed of celebrity and bile. But in the past ten months I’ve remembered how powerful a thing it is for conservatives to have a target. Post-Reagan conservatism, with its overwhelming negativity, is back to doing what it does best—without even pretending to have a viable governing agenda. I imagined that in the aftermath of their historic defeat, Republicans would spend months, if not years, engaged in a serious internal debate between reformists and purists. Instead, the party has become more monolithic and shrill than ever. And in our constitutional system, a brain-dead minority party that spouts simple-minded slogans on TV and votes in rigid unison can be a serious obstacle to achieving anything.

via Obama’s Troubles: Interesting Times : The New Yorker.

“Every sign I see is doom. But then people say” – he adopts a whiny, nasal voice – “‘Oh Mr Vidal, you’re so negative, can’t you say something nice about America? It’s a wonderful country, everybody wants to live here.’ Oh yes? When was the last time you saw a Norwegian with a green card who wanted to come here because of the health service? I’ll pay you if you can find one.”

But there is, he says with sudden perkiness, some “good news. Afghanistan will be terminal for the American empire, yes. Which is a happy way of looking at it. We’ll be out of the empire game, rapidly. But it’s too late for the country and the constitution.” He raises his drink, and smiles ironically. “To a better republic,” he says, and drinks in one long gulp.

via Gore Vidal’s United States of fury – Americas, World – The Independent.