then why can't they pay it back early.....see op....
They can and have.
Nothing in the OP shows that any bank has been denied the opportunity to pay this money back early. They say they fear it may take TWO MONTHS.
You understand that it was THREE YEARS before the stimulus bill established the opportunity to pay it back ?
You let me know when one of those banks is actually denied the opportunity to pay it back. So far, hasn't happened. If it has, show me. So far, you got exactly squat.
Fast forward to today, and that same bank is begging to give the money back. The chairman offers to write a check, now, with interest. He's been sitting on the cash for months and has felt the dead hand of government threatening to run his business and dictate pay scales. He sees the writing on the wall and he wants out
. But the Obama team says no, since unlike the smaller banks that gave their TARP money back, this bank is far more prominent. The bank has also been threatened with "adverse" consequences if its chairman persists. That's politics talking, not economics