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photo courtesy of Pundit Kitchen

Even as Minnesota braces for a multi-billion dollar deficit when the official budget forecast is released next Thursday, the federal government is once again calling for Chinese takeout to the tune of $20 billion, plus another $306 billion in loan guarantees to bail out Citigroup. The deal provides the government with a minimal stake in the company as compensation, but let's call this what it is - yet another bank too big to fail but with too firm a grip on lawmakers' twigs and berries to make accountable.

So, upon waking this fine autumn Monday, the internet was alive with the ferocious roars of millions of American citizens struggling to buy their children Lil' Jihad dolls this holiday season. Their messages of injustice and outrage were heard clearly across the globe, spraying monitors throughout this great nation with saliva as they twitched in paroxysms of rage - pounding out typo-laden diatribes calling for holy war against Citigroup and its subsidiaries.

They're not wrong, of course. But they're angry for the wrong reasons. While they work themselves into a frenzy over the injustice of it all. Why, for $20 billion the U.S. government could give every man, woman and child in America $67! That could cover a fabulous night at Outback. And given the delicate state the country finds itself in, a Bloomin' Onion in every pot could be a policy platform United States taxpayers can get behind. However, the powers that be had little choice but to make a deal with the eldritch forces responsible for financing everything from cars to home appliances. Where they did have a choice was in the constraints and controls the government put upon the creature known as Citigroup.

Unfortunately, apart from being forced to renegotiate mortgage terms with some homeowners, the standard executive pay limits included as part of the $700 billion bailout package passed last month, and dividends becoming but a lurid fantasy for Citibank shareholders, there are few leashes placed around the necks of those who placed the company in harm's way to begin with. Where the automakers are forced to bow and scrape, pleading and begging for what scraps the government can spare and drawing up detailed spending plans to show that they won't just waste their ill-gotten billions on hookers and blow, Citibank seems largely free to resume business as usual.

There's no question the Bush administration has never been big on accountability, but one would imagine that the architects of Citibank's downfall would be rapidly ushered out for their reckless approach. Some, like Thomas G. Maheras, who headed Citibank's trading division, and his close friend and senior risk officer David Bushnell, have been well and truly shitcanned. But, like the fraternity brother who, after a course of Planned Parenthood provided antibiotics feels once again ready, willing and able to ride again, several other heads do not seem to have rolled at the bank.

But it's not about blood, bones and the odd decapitation, no matter how fun and satisfying that may be. The government, in its wisdom, has provided massive amounts of capitol, without offering directive or direction on how the bank must use it. It's not enough to "shore up" the company. The Fed must help direct its investments and efforts into areas that will do the most good for the economy - loosening credit markets for all. Not to the Jenna Jameson-esque levels they once were, of course, but loose nonetheless.