My home state of Illinois...

...becomes the latest example of the themes discussed here (and in many other places). Nationalization and politicization of private capital is one of the more slippery slopes to Hayek's road to Serfdom.

Then again, banks have not had the most stellar record in loan decision making...


By David Mildenberg

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich said today the state would suspend its business with Bank of America Corp. until the lender restores credit to the shuttered Republic Windows & Doors company in Chicago where workers are staging a sit-in.

Blagojevich commented at a news conference after meeting with employees who have stayed at the factory since Dec. 5, when it closed after the bank canceled its line of credit. Illinois does “hundreds of millions of dollars” in business with the bank, he said.

“We’re hoping negotiations this afternoon with the bank and company are successful and they can make things happen,” Kelly Quinn, a spokeswoman for Blagojevich, said. “The governor believes we should be putting people to work, not sending them to the unemployment line.

The protest by members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Union has received support from President-elect Barack Obama, who said at a news conference in Chicago yesterday that the workers are justified in demanding their benefits and pay.

“I think they’re absolutely right,” said Obama, who gave up his U.S. Senate seat from llinois last month. “I think that these workers, if they have earned these benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments.”