I am not sure of the moral to be drawn from the fact that Citigroup, in its role as lender, has taken control of a resort hotel in California where American International Group held a retreat after being bailed out by the US government, but it is a straw in the wind.
The St Regis Monarch Beach in Dana Point is far from the only resort hotel to be in trouble as a result of the severe cutbacks in business travel and conferences following the financial crisis.
The hotel’s website advertises it as “imaginatively conceived to envelop the senses, answer every desire and stir the soul”, which sounds like a bargain at any price.
In the good old days, employees, customers and investors could look forward to spending a few days every winter in some resort hotel in Florida, Arizona or California listening to a few presentations and taking in a round of golf or a visit to the spa.
Now, as we know, that sort of thing is frowned upon. Not only are many companies cutting back on them but Wall Street financial institutions are still keeping their heads down.
There are some ironies. No corporate executive in receipt of taxpayer money can afford to admit on Capitol Hill to having held an event in Las Vegas, although it is about the cheapest place in the US to do so.
But, as a result, the luxury and resort hotel business is under severe strain. You would have thought that the politicians from the sunbelt states would be in favour of banks spending money at their local hotels, but it seems not.
