On Monday, President Obama will meet with the leaders of the top banks in the nation to encourage them to start offering loans and credit to small businesses, and to deal with the home foreclosure crisis in a more forthcoming way than they have displayed this past year.
Considering that the banks were saved by federal intervention in the last months of the Bush Administration and throughout this year by the Obama Administration, I think it is certainly reasonable to expect them to change their behavior, and for the President to bring real pressure on them to do so.
If they prove resistant to such entreaties, then the President needs to suggest strong action by Congress to assess a windfall profits tax on the banking industry, a suggestion made by Suze Orman, the personal finance expert.
The American people will not tolerate much longer an arrogant attitude by the nation’s banks, who are seen as major villains in the economic crisis that led to the present Great Recession.