ShoreBank, an inner-city lender based in Chicago with close ties to the Obama administration, failed on Friday – but quickly reorganized under the name Urban Partnership Bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. pumped $367.7 million into the bank to keep it afloat.
Paul Chesser, a special correspondent for The Heartland Institute, says “meet Urban Partnership Bank; same as the old ShoreBank.” You may quote directly from this statement or contact Chesser for more information at [email protected] or 919/601-4908.
“That ShoreBank will continue its mission as Urban Partnership Bank shows that its progressive agenda is worthy of an unlimited supply of FDIC funds and arm-twisting, which is what saved it.
“Meanwhile ShoreBank’s heavily subsidized green agenda survives as its subsidiary, ShoreBank Pacific, is absorbed by another progressive community development institution: Oakland-based OneCalifornia Bank. Alternative energy schemers dependent on taxpayers to back their manure-to-energy and food-burning ideas can breathe a sigh of relief.
“If ShoreBank was to be saved, then its fellow progressives in the multibillion-dollar Ford Foundation and James and Catherine MacArthur Foundation should have stepped up. Shareholders in firms like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America should hold their executives accountable for their companies’ roles in reviving this Frankenstein bank.”
Chesser has followed this story closely for several months. Recent posts on ShoreBank’s troubles – and troubling political ties – at Heartland’s Web site “The Freedom Pub” include:
http://www.freedompub.org/profiles/blogs/split-the-shorebank-baby August 10: “Split the ShoreBank Baby?”
http://www.freedompub.org/profiles/blogs/shorebank-at-deaths-door-or August 5: “ShoreBank: At Death’s Door or Another Reprieve?”
http://www.freedompub.org/profiles/blogs/bailing-out-the-enviros July 9: “Bailing Out the Enviros”
http://www.freedompub.org/profiles/blogs/shorebank-prez-white-bankers July 2: “ShoreBank Prez: White Bankers ‘Deserve to be Pressured’ “
http://www.freedompub.org/profiles/blogs/denial-runs-to-the-shorebank June 25: “Denial Runs to the Shore(Bank)”
http://www.freedompub.org/profiles/blogs/firestorm-threatened-in June 22: ” ‘Firestorm’ Threatened in Chicago If Bank Not Bailed Out”
http://www.freedompub.org/profiles/blogs/saving-two-presidents-favorite June 17: “Saving Two Presidents’ Favorite Bank”
Jim Lakely is the Vice President and Director of Communications of The Heartland Institute.
