The big banks just launched a supposedly ‘grass-roots’ campaign to try and rehabilitate their image.

Said Americans United for Change today (a coalition ally in the Americans for Financial Reform coalition):

 Largest Wall Street Trade Group Launches PR Campaign to Defend Against “Populist Overreaction”
 
Americans United for Change: “What are they going to call it?  The ‘Thanks for the Bailout, Suckers – Now Quit Whining’ Tour?”
 
“A.I.G. Planning Huge Bonuses After $170 Billion Bailout” – NYT, March 14, 2009

“Caught on Tape: Bank Parties On After Bailout” – ABCNews.com, Feb. 24, 2009

“After Bailout, AIG Execs Head to California Resort; Rescued by Taxpayers, $440,000 for Retreat Including "Pedicures, Manicures" – ABCNews.com, October 7, 2008

“Citigroup May Spend $10 Million for Executive Suite” – Bloomberg, March 19, 2009

“Heckuva Bailout: Citi and AIG Will Still Pay Hundreds Of Millions In Sports Sponsorship” – HuffingtonPost.com, Nov. 24, 2008

“The Great American Bubble; From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression” – Rolling Stone, July 9-23, 2009

Washington D.C. – Americans United for Change, a member of the Americans for Financial Reform coalition of nearly 200 state and local organizations working to reform and restore oversight, accountability and transparency  to the nation’s financial system, released the following statement in response to the reported launch of a “city-by-city, grass roots” PR campaign by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association  — Wall Street’s largest trade group – in an effort to defend the embattled financial industry from “populist overreaction.”

Tom McMahon, Acting Executive Director, Americans United for Change: “Only in a bubble of unadulterated greed could Wall Street describe the public outrage at their antics before and after receiving hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money as “populist overreaction.”  What are they going to call their new PR campaign: The ‘Thanks for the Bailout, Suckers – Now Quit Whining’ Tour?’  This ongoing, unflinching “no accountability” attitude on Wall Street only underscores the urgent need for major reform of the financial industry.”

Touché.