Let Them Eat Cake
The UK press has been reporting stories for some time regarding the mind boggling bonuses Wall Street firms are planning to bestow on their executives this year — this year. For whatever reason the U.S. media has pretty much ignored the situation though a recent item from Bloomberg is catching some attention. So let's be clear: the U.S. taxpayer rushes to bail out, among others, high-flying investment banks, the banks then turn around and plan to give tens of billions of dollars (at least) to their senior staff. It should almost go without saying, the very same senior staff that drove the firms into the ground in the first place. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what truly high class robbery looks like.
The Democrats were inordinately anxious to get some kind of bail-out passed. They didn't want to argue the compensation issue with the Republicans despite being aware of the very real possibility that Wall Street would just take the money for itself. Now the Democratic leadership is on the hook to fix their fix. Several banks, including Goldman Sachs, should be nationalized and then shut down in an orderly way, to set an example. Top executives should be tormented by the justice system and sent to jail, if possible. It's simply unacceptable that Congress could shrug and say 'oh well, we tried' when tens of billions of dollars are stolen from the public in plain sight. And if the Democratic leadership does go that route (I predict it will) it's time to take names and systematically weed the scumbags out.
Posted by George Kenney on October 31, 2008 1:56 AM 
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Comments
If it were only the compensation issue, that would be obscene enough. The banks that were too big to fail have decided to use their newly found billions to buy their competitors and thus become even bigger.
The Congress, as usual, has failed to exercise its Constitutional responsibility. It has devolved into little more than a PR exercise where members can get airtime on TV sounding important. If they are mainstream, it's on the major broadcast and cable networks. If they are progressive, they are relegated to CSPAN and YouTube.
Now I read that Obama is considering one of the chief architects of this temple of inaction, Rahm Emanuel, as his Chief of Staff. Arrrrgh!
[I made a couple calls this morning to Congress to complain. In the course of doing this I was very put out to find that Rep. Pelosi's office only takes comments via a voice mail system! By insisting I managed to get an operator in her office to take my complaint, but I'm still cross about this blatant disregard of the public. In contrast, Rep. Frank's office was very, very pleased to hear from me, they said. Probably the more calls to Congress to say how furious people are, the better. g.]
Posted by: Democracy Lover
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October 31, 2008 4:36 PM