Bailout Merger No. 1: PNC and National City

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I have to agree with your above readers. I am a current employee of National City, which my coworkers have renamed PNC, Previously National City. I have felt as though I have been completely deceived. Throughout the nine years I have worked there we have always heard of talks of buyouts, even when the stock was over $30.00. The corporate communications we have been receiving have all indicated that we are in good standing since we were able to obtain a capital infusion from an investment group of $7 billion. As recent as October 15th an email indicated the following quote "While National City is stable and well-capitalized, these ratios are not the only measures of our strength". To me this is complete deception. Nine days later I receive an email stating that we are merging. I should have known better than to believe anyone that told me we would be alright. Maybe when National City's CEO gets his nice payout he can share it with me because many of my decisions and investments were based on the communications that were sent to me indicating we are in good standing. I take responsibility for my investments but I feel that many of them were based on the information I had been sent. Shame on the correspondances that were sent indicating we were in good standing.

JANE of MI 6:08PM October 26, 2008

National City was denied help from the government and did what they had to do to keep the doors open. And the top execs are going to donate their earnings to charity. Check your facts before you blast off responses like you did please.

jennifer of OH 2:40PM October 26, 2008

I think there must be some real stipulation that any bank which accepts "bailout" money from the government to buy a weaker bank MUST agree to start lending again within a certain period agreed to by both parties.
If the banks don't lend, the purpose of the bailout money will be lost and we will just end up with a few big banks monopolizing the banking system and being able to do whatever helps "them" and not the businesses who need the loans or depositors who need DECENT interest rates on savings to survive. Without fair competition from other banks, savers will not be interested in letting the banks use their money while paying them unfair interest rates. Our government is encouraging possible bad behavior by big banks unless they give them "rules" to adhere to with the bailout money.

Bea M. of KY 12:17PM October 26, 2008

How could National City publish that they were in good standing and they did not need a loan form the Gov. Now they are selling at a discount to keep the doors open. What about all the people that beleaved in them and bought the stock to help them survive. The CEO, CFO and board should be held accountable for there actions and this purchased needs to be looked into. Also how could PNC get a loan to buy them but National City did not take the loan to help themselves

pete of MO 11:59AM October 26, 2008

The damage done by the past year of exorbitant gas prices will be long lasting and has all but destroyed our economy Families have been stretched to the max between filling up the family car to get back and forth to work, higher utility bills and the effect of high fuel on every consumer product we need to purchase. Jobs and homes are being lost at record rates..We need to wake up and realize how much our dependence on foreign oil and our slavery to OPEC has hurt our economy.We have so much available to us between free energy such as wind and solar to technologies such as hybrid and elec plug in cars that it is just ridiculous to continue on the path we are on. The cost of charging and driving an electric car would be equal to paying 60 cents per gallon of gas. The problem is electric cars cost too much for the average Joe (pun intended) :) Our government tries to stimulate our economy by handing out 168 BILLION dollars in stimulus checks.How much good did that do our economy really? And now Bernake wants to hand out another stimulus check. Solar and wind are free sources of energy.Let''s invest in getting those set up. Jeff Wilson just published a new book called THE MANHATTAN PROJECT OF 2009. Very interesting read.Our goverment needs to get serious and develop a plan to get us off oil.

Sherry of FL 7:13PM October 25, 2008

We are beginning to see the truth as to what this psychopathic destruction of the Constitution was all about. Large healthy banks will now be allowed to become larger and wealthier by buying up smaller banks with taxpayer money. Rather than use the money for what it was intended for, banks are hording waiting for smaller banks and businesses to go under so they can buy their assets for pennies on the dollar. They don't care if the entire population starves in the process. This is exactly what happened during the depression.
http://ewebsmith.com/Finance/notlistening.html

Web Smith of CA 8:42PM October 24, 2008