Wall Street Banks' Pay, Bonus Deals Equal 10 Percent Of US Bailout Package

The Guardian:

Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned.

Staff at six banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are in line to pick up the payouts despite being the beneficiaries of a $700bn bail-out from the US government that has already prompted criticism. The government's cash has been poured in on the condition that excessive executive pay would be curbed.

Read the whole story: The Guardian

Comments

[drkazmd65]

Jesus F'ing Christ,... how stuipd, or how crooked, are our Senators, Congress-critters, and Regulators? It's gotta be one of the two (my guess is crooked), because this is just a f'ing stupid move.

Somebody's heads should be rolling,... at the least hordes of CEOs should be wearing orange jumpsuits and hanging around in Levenworth KS for a few years. Along with a few of our Government 'leaders'.

[PublicAdvocate]

I'm afraid that with just two complicit parties, its all too easy to side with the campaign contributors and lobbyists. Congress only has to face an angry public for reelection every 2 or 6 years. But every day they face smiling lobbyists flush with cash contributions and offers for fun golf trips, sports tickets in elite sky boxes, free drinks and buffet meals, jet rides, pretty girls, and probably other perks.
The only way to reform behavior is to stop the party. The only way to stop the party is to put in draconian reforms or just boot them out of office so they will have to reexamine their job descriptions. Perhaps best is both. Temptation has its ways with human nature, and most people find resistance to pleasure and privelege very difficult to forgo..especially over long periods of time when fellow congress folk are enjoying themselves in extravagance and decadence without guilt or shame.

[Paul]

The answer is to nationalize the banks.

Private ownership obviously does not work.

If the only way to keep the financial system from crashing is by government assistance, then the price of the bailout is control of the banks by the government.

Perhaps th Obama administration and a new congress will do this.

Pelosi and Reid apparently just caved again.

[PublicAdvocate]

Pelosi and Reed have been way to soft on Bush/Cheney. These criminals should have been impeached long ago for their serial Constitutional crimes and sent to the Hague for their War Crimes. This administration has been the most malevolent force on our nation in terms of moral integrity, financial prudence, personal responsibility, national security, trade, and winning friends and allies.
Bush/Cheney will leave behind a depleted, demoralized and bankrupt America because the Democrats failed to stand up to the president and be a check on rogue power.
Rewarding the Democrats with the presidency will not encourage courage or integrity. Only Nader can solve our nation's problems now.

[KillTheMessenger]

You have to punish Pelosi and Reed and vote for Ralph. That will teach them!

:-)

[quindy]

Do we have laws to put these criminals in jail? What is wrong with this county? Do we, the taxpayers, have any rights? Can we stop paying taxes until every single penny is returned to its right owner - the taxpayers? We will be burdened for who knows how many years to come and the wall streeters will still walk free and richer and richer. I cannot believe what I read.

[KillTheMessenger]

No laws, no crime.

"What is wrong with this country?"

You kept shouting

"Four more years! Four more years!"

four years ago. Remember?

In other words: you brought this and pretty much everything else onto yourselves.

[PublicAdvocate]

Obama and the Democrats will be giving a free pass to the Bush/Cheney corp as it leaves office. The Democrats did hold a majority for two years in both houses of Congress yet failed to impeach Bush or end the Iraq war.
Should we believe their rhetoric for change or their voting record as indicators of what the future will hold?
Ralph Nader has fought the good fight from the beginning, been courageous, bold, and has more integrity than anyone in elected office..including Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich whom I both respect highly.
Voting for status quo parties only guarantees status quo results.

[jcorrington]

Well, really, how can anyone be surprised? This was bushies last crony payoff and it was evident from the start.

Face it, no one listens to the populace anymore.

[MajorKong]

I obviously picked the wrong line on Career Day.

[WorkingClass]

There you have it working Americans. The congress steals your money and gives it to the ruling class. They put the money in their pocket except for the part they kick back to the congress. Its all out in the open and bi-partisan. Your wonderful free market capitalism, rugged individualism and social Darwinism have brought you to serfdom. Your constitution and your bill of rights are a dead letter. Its not socialists or atheists or Moslems or Arabs or terrorists that have done this to you. Its capitalist robber barons and their bought and paid for politicians that have stolen your birth right.

[KillTheMessenger]

There you have it working Americans.You get the political system you vote for. Of course, if unborn life and meddling with the lives of gay couples is more important to you than the financial future of your kids and grandchildren, keep voting for your ""values".

:-)

[PublicAdvocate]

I notice that many of the "Pro-Lifers" who value every life as being created by God and having priceless inherent worth are also the same folk frequently who are more than happy to create war after war after war where millions of innocents get murdered.

I also notice that many who argue against Gay Marriage as an abomination before God arguing that God created marriage as 1 man and 1 woman are not only having affairs themselves and breaking their sacred vows and marriage covenant (Gingrinch, Hyde, Sweatty Sinner Swaggert, Larry Craig, Mark Foley and others) but also don't know their bible very well.

God of the OT specifically rewards David and Solomon with multiple wives and gives them tremendous power and wealth to control others. Jesus came not to obstruct but fulfull the OT. Interesting and provocative sites that refute Right wingers religious zealots below.
http://www.christianpolygamy.com/
http://www.biblicalpolygamy.com/

[gakabani]

It pays to be a Wall Street criminal.

[gakabani]

Fascism is the terminology that needs to be used. Robbery is for us the poor.

[KillTheMessenger]

Only people who don't know what fascism is use the term lightly. Fascism is when you get dragged out of your home in the middle of the night and you disappear in a political prisoner camp or worse for having criticized the ruling class.

Is the GOP a fascistoid party? Absolutely. But America is not fascist, quite yet.

[beanie]

We can express our outrage until we are hoarse. We can do nothing about the bonuses, and similar inequities, unless we dispel many of the widely-held myths of our socio-economic system.

I suspect there are several reasons we can do little about the bonuses. First, these are private banks and their employee contracts are private. Their employee contracts are reviewed and filed with their lawyers. I suspect that their contracts generally do not contain penalty clauses. In other words, their contracts do not contain take-aways for poor bank performance. The bankers have a huge upside with very little or any risk.

So what we have is one more example how much our socio-economic system favors the well-off and well-connected. Our only recourse for cost recovery are the courts. How many federal prosecutors, paid by the tax payers, have the time, energy and political backing to sue the bankers and recover any public funds?

So I think the bottom line is, don't bail out private banks with public funds unless the public has guarranteed methods for repayment.

[Snwbnny9]

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo told American International Group Inc. on Wednesday to do away with golden parachutes for executives, golf outings, overseas hunting trips and parties while taking government money to stay afloat.

Cuomo said he has the power under state business law to review and possibly rescind any inappropriate AIG spending as long as the Federal Reserve is propping up the giant insurer with almost $123 billion in loans announced since Sept. 16. Cuomo said he will examine spending by the company dating back to January 2007.

I'm writing my Congress person's about this later today.

[KillTheMessenger]

Andrew Cuomo is making a political run for the next office. That's all this is. You will see this investigation collapse with nothing to show for but taxpayer expenses.

[Snwbnny9]

You can send a comment to Andre Cuomo letting him know you support his efforts to keep AIG in line at

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/contact.html

[andyboy]

Snwbnny9,

You don't keep serial killers "in line". You either jail them for life or execute them. You seem like a nice , intelligent gal but you have to understand one thing. AIG is nothing more than a modern day MAFIA. They won't just knuckle under because it's right or patriotic. They are out to steal every penny they can get their grubby fingers on. Period.

These are craven thieves. Morally bankrupt greed monsters.

Writing a letter or e-mailing someone is totally futile. They need to be perp-walked and prosecuted for their huge but still obvious Ponzi scheme. Cutting up and re-packaging their worthless debt over and over and then dumping it in your lap is a crime.

People don't seem to get that we just handed these perverse devils $700 billion.

You have been "stung". It was all "legal". They walk away laughing at us the stupid idiot marks. Pockets stuffed to the brim with their ill-gotten gains.

[Snwbnny9]

This makes me so angry I want to scream.
Their pay should be reduced down to what the average guy makes. I would say $50,000 a year. Bonus pay should be zero. And they should be told to consider themselves lucky if they don't go to jail.

[KillTheMessenger]

Anger is not a good adviser. Did nobody ever tell you that?

[marijam]

Awarding these people for their failures is bad for Democracy and bad for a system of supposed meritocracy. What other job, when you are fired, gives you this kind of severance package?

[jimmyjones22]

WTF?!

this is complete BS!! They should be fired and put into jail!!

This....OMFG...WTF is wrong with this country!??!?!?!?

It was supposed to go towards stabalizing the economy, not into some failure of a CEO's pockets. This is outrageous. The American people have just been robbed blind. Hoodwinked.. Bamboozled.

[francoise]

I don't really understand the outrage.

The global financial crisis has its roots in the American subprime mortgage system, in the American derivatives and swaps system, in the American recession (itself due to the American Iraq war, the American taxes-are-bad religion, the American over-consumption of oil and crap, the American spending habits).

The Wall Street traders and bankers have succeeded in getting rid of 50 % of the toxic derivatives by selling them to foreigners.

Europeans are bailing out their banks, Chinese are tightening their belts, and everywhere around the world foreigners have lost money on American derivatives.

It seems to me that the American traders were smart when getting rid of half of the hot potatoes.

Of course they must be rewarded !

If they hadn't succeeded, America would be the sole owner of toxic derivatives. You guys would be on your own.

You should be very thankful to the traders who've halved your financial problems.

[PT6]

Sick Logic from probably a SICK SELLER of THESE Illegal Products!

[francoise]

No, not even a sick buyer ;-)

Just not a fan of political correctness, this American value.

[PT6]

This is an OUTRAGE!

These people must be PUNISHED!

Do they NOT sense the Mood of the AMERICAN PEOPLE?

IDEA: DON'T BY Multi-Million Dollar Painings for a while!

They will NOT STOP UNTIL A "FEW DOZEN OR MORE" GO TO JAIL!

[KillTheMessenger]

Yada... Yada... Yada...