by: mooncat

Mon Jul 27, 2009 at 17:34:34 PM CDT

Keith Olbermann ought to pick this one up for a Worst Persons segment.  Wells Fargo & Co. forced Plantation Patterns parent company Meadowcraft, Inc. into bankruptcy last March.  Today, they auctioned off Meadowcraft’s assets, including the Plantation Patterns plant in Wadley, Alabama that employs 500 people in this town of 650.  No word yet on whether they found a bidder for the Wadley plant.

Here’s the real craziness:  The current management wants to buy the Wadley plant — Plantation Patterns is a viable business with customers, orders, etc. — but they can’t get credit from Wells Fargo & Co.  This is the same Wells Fargo & Co. who received $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money last fall.  And the same Wells Fargo & Co. whose Chairman received $23 million in compensation for 2007 and whose CEO received $12.5 million that year.  Also, as Democratic candidate for State Treasurer Jeremy Sherer points out, it’s the same Wells Fargo & Co. which holds deposits from the State of Alabama totalling roughly $40 million.

“The State of Alabama has approximately $40 million deposited within Wachovia/Wells Fargo. I do not believe that Wachovia/Wells Fargo’s treatment of Meadowcraft, and the families and communities associated with it, exemplifies the kind of civic virtue that our State and its taxpayers should reward to the level that we presently do”, declared Sherer.

But this same Wells Fargo would rather see the Wadley plant auctioned off — probably closed permanently with the equipment and jobs shipped overseas — than turn loose of some of that TARP money in a line of credit to a Main Street, American manufacturer.  What the heck are they doing with that $25 billion in TARP funds, socking it away for a rainy day? News flash: If you live in or near Wadley, Alabama, today is one heck of a rainy day.