Block That Boondoggle!

Another extravagant executive foray bit the dust when the Financial Services Roundtable, the powerhouse lobby for the banking industry group, decided to pull the plug on its spring meeting at a luxury resort in Naples, Florida.

Instead of enjoying sweeping views of the Gulf of Mexico, a world-class spa, two heated outdoor pools and nearby golf course at the Naples Ritz-Carlton, banking executives will spend the three-day meeting in dull, dreary Washington.

At least it will be a short commute for headline speakers like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Senator John McCain, FDIC chairwoman Sheila Bair, and SEC chief Mary Schapiro -- although the venue won't do much to improve their tans.

Where it will be held is a secret, for now. It might be somewhat hard to hide the new location given the high-profile list of attendees. However, the lobbyists -- who already have their hands full defending bankers' money-grubbing image against the irate, increasingly impoverished public -- probably won't be touting it.

The group's Florida jaunt was brought to light when a union wrote to federal lawmakers to complain that the bankers' agenda included discussing ways to block liberalization of labor organizing laws.

Roundtable members should not "now have the audacity to follow the ranks of AIG, Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch in a TARP-funded shame and excess, while 1.2 million workers have lost their jobs since Thanksgiving," said Change To Win executive director Chris Chase.

And any bank that took federal funds and "is trying to use them to squash worker's right or have a party on our tax dollars should have to give it all back, and be banned from receiving it in the future," he said.

by Elizabeth Olson