Play or Pay

Gibson Guitar, having broken no US laws, is being forced to pay the piper:

According to the department, Gibson entered a “criminal enforcement agreement” resolving the investigation. The federal government will not charge Gibson, but the company has apparently agreed to pay a $300,000 penalty, pay $50,000 to a federal conservation fund and withdraw claims to the valuable fingerboards that were seized in a series of federal raids.

And in a totally unrelated story, Tim Geithner screwed 20,000 non-union workers, and not in a fun way:

Emails obtained by The Daily Caller show that the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, was the driving force behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company.

The move, made in 2009 while the Obama administration implemented its auto bailout plan, appears to have been made solely because those retirees were not members of labor unions.

It’s the Chicago way.