Sometimes it almost seems as if these Wall Street folks want to be stormed by pitchfork-wielding mobs. Witness ABC News's report this morning that TARP funds-recipient JPMorgan Chase is going to spend $138 million to buy a couple new luxury jets and build "the premiere corporate aircraft hangar on the eastern seabord."
That said, I thought this bit from the ABC News report was a bit much:
Mike Dolphin, president of fixed-based operator Avitat Westchester, is fighting the bank's grand plans – because he says JPMorgan's proposed expansion would force his company out of the hangar the bank is eyeing. Westchester County, NY has recommended that the bank – a "high quality corporate citizen" – be awarded the lease to the hangar when it becomes available in April 2010, in part, because of how much money it is dedicating for the "construction of a state of the art "green building."""I am the little guy, so we have a bit of a David versus Goliath fight on our hands," Dolphin told ABC News. He said JPMorgan Chase's plans come at the "wrong place, wrong time" and that despite scaled back private aviation from other TARP-funded companies, JPMorgan Chase is going ahead with its plans, which, if finalized by the county, will cut his business and his staff in half.
From the sound of all that, you'd think that Avitat Westchester was some sort of mom-and-pop operation that Great Great Grandfather Dolphin founded back in Aught Four after a chance encounter with Orville and Wilbur. But Avitat Westchester is actually part of ExxonMobil aviation. Not that that justifies JPMorgan's hangar plans--or mitigates the loss of jobs that would occur at Avitat Westchester if the plans go forward. But it would be nice if news orgs didn't try to make these sorts of stories any more infuriating than they already are.
--Jason Zengerle