Obama aides decry Wall St. bonuses -- so what?
Greedy Wall Street was the talking point for the White House on Sunday's talk shows. As America's unemployment rate approaches 10 percent, big financial companies sit comfortably on billions in taxpayer bailouts and bankers rake in what may be record pay, "the bonuses are offensive," David Axelrod told ABC's "This Week," according to the Washington Post.
"Not only do they come for a bailout," said Rahm Emanuel on CNN's State of the Union. "They're now back trying to fight a consumer office and the type of protections that will prevent another type of situation where the economy is taken over the cliff by the actions taken on Wall Street and financial market."
But nobody's really talking about doing anything about the pay. The White House is trying to use outrage over the bonuses as leverage to get finance-reform legislation passed. The unspoken offer: We'll shut up about pay if you guys stop blocking efforts to set up a consumer financial safety agency. Treasury Department pay czar Kenneth Feinberg gets lots of headlines but what he's doing is symbolic rather than substantial -- getting Bank of America's Ken Lewis to give back his 2009 pay, waving a stick at AIG, etc.
Go ahead, Goldman Sachs partners. Sign the contract on that mansion in Bimini. Those bonuses are money in the bank.
Comments
Our dear president is like the lazy parent who will scold his children but never actually punish them. Talk is cheap, Mr. President. Put up or shut up but stop pretending we cannot Google the history books to see you've already played this charade once before.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Obama+%2Bwall+street+bonuses&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official
Posted by: Dan | October 19, 2009 8:56 AM
Americans are so apathetic that when they are getting corn-holed financially (Bailouts to save banks, etc.) by the "BIG BOYS" on the NYSE/NASDAQ they pretty much resolve themselves to just throwing their arms up in the air and just moving on. The government eith needs to get regulation that reins in the banks and the financial institutions (nationalize them if they must) before the general masses get "wise" to their scam and we have a full-blown revolution nationwide. I know people who are actually ready to go out to NYC (broke/destitute/homeless thanks to Wall Street) and visit Wall Street and actually take the problem out on hedgefund managers, banks, CEOS, etc.
Posted by: Kevin S. McCarthy | October 19, 2009 2:27 PM
Congress: 10% collective approval rating. 95% collective re-election rate.
Posted by: Josh | October 19, 2009 5:30 PM
Every MD congressman/senator with the exception of Roscoe Bartlet out in Western MD voted for the bank bailout. Remember it a year from now.
Posted by: Josh | October 19, 2009 5:32 PM
The bankrutcy courts, where all of the bailouts should have gone, at least provide due process. Obama with his bailouts and czarmania will come back to haunt us. Where does it end? Jay, how will you feel when (not if) the Sun gets bailed out and you get paid in future shares?
Posted by: Jack | October 23, 2009 11:58 AM
More bonuses paid to bankers...just what this country needs. I just hope that the bailout funds did not go straight into the pockets of the bankers. But I guess that's how this country works?
Posted by: Tax Lawyer | November 23, 2009 8:11 PM
The bonuses will go on and on until someone does something about them. It seems that even if you are owned by the gov't you still can run your own business. That's how it works.
Posted by: Accounting Leads | January 26, 2010 9:28 PM