

The people complaining that Wells Fargo ought not have a corporate function in Las Vegas because it benefited from the "bail out" are wrong. There are at least three reasons.



First, Wells Fargo never needed the "bail out." Everybody knows that Hank Paulson very forcefully twisted the arms of even the strongest banks to take the TARP funds, because he did not want the acceptance of government capital to stigmatize the banks that needed it.



Second, Glenn Reynolds is right:



But it sounds like this is actually a reward for salespeople. If you’re hurting for cash, you probably want to reward salespeople who do a good job. Or am I missing something here?

You need to do that whether or not you are hurting for cash.Third, Vegas is actually a very cheap place to host a big meeting, sales or otherwise. It is possible for large groups to negotiate the price on lodging down to the cost of a night at Holiday Inn Express in Akron, and there are a huge number of flights from just about every other big city in the country, which makes the airfare quite competitive. All in, Vegas is a significantly less expensive to convene a national business meeting than big cities.Wells Fargo has, in fact, directly accused the Associated Press of misleading its readers. Good for them.