Posted on 01/30/2009 11:55:19 AM PST by Red in Blue PA
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One day after President Barack Obama ripped Wall Street executives for their "shameful" decision to hand out $18 billion in bonuses in 2008, Congress may finally have had enough.
An angry U.S. senator introduced legislation Friday to cap compensation for employees of any company that accepts federal bailout money. Under the terms of a bill introduced by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, no employee would be allowed to make more than the president of the United States.
Obama's current annual salary is $400,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
They had help from their financial sponsor, George Sorros, and his friends who have a track record of doing exactly the same thing in a number of countries.
But, let's go beyond that ~ recall when Obama said he was going to bankrupt power generation companies who used coal?
You must have missed that part. That's the sort of talk that used to cause a candidate to lose an election. This time it was just part of the spiel of a guy who was running against Time Magazine's favorite guy ~ so the business community took him at his word.
Obama started his own Depression.
The depression began in 2007 under Bush...you will not be able to rewrite history...no doubt Fannie and Freddie were a problem. However, if you look at the money, this amounts to less than 1/10 of TARP. Wall street crashed the market with their 60 to one leverage, stupid credit default swaps (also bankrupted Iceland and possibly England) and giant ponzi schemes which went undetected by the corrupt SEC.
I agree. How can conservatives not see that you can’t create a system that divorces compensation from corporate profitability -a system that allows a failing CEO to walk away with 80 million dollars? People on this forum are quick to say that the UAW caused GM’s problems by taking ‘excessive’ compensation and benefits(this is not really true, but that is an argument for a different thread) when the company was doing poorly...yet bankers are doing the same thing and expecting taxpayers to subsidize them. Why any conservative would defend the bankers is beyond me.
This is semantics...there is more than one indicator that shows recession...the recession began in 2007. The car industry is the first to take a hit and the last to recover...no question things began going South in 2007.
For a $16 billion per year economy, that's a drop of $152 billion.
All of Bernie Madoff's losses occurred over a 20 year period, so he alone wasn't responsible for the whole thing, but $152 billion is actually serious business amounting to about $760 per working American (over a whole year, or just over $63 per month. That could happen if every 20th homeowner didn't pay his mortgage each month ~ and that did happen.
One takes the king’s coin, one kisses the king’s ass afterwards.
When the full bill is presented to them the banks will learn what everyone else through out history who has sold their souls learned: They sold way too cheap.
Car sales are down for a couple of reasons one of which is they've actually been putting better paint jobs on them (so good I have two cars that are 12 years old out front and they look brand new). 10 year warranties are "real". The other big reason has to do with credit ~ the federal reserve raised the discount rate repeatedly in 2006 and 2007 with the consequence that as variable interest rate mortgages began coming due at a new rate, borrowers found the "jumps" insurmountable so they defaulted and homes were foreclosed. At the same time illegal aliens were swamping the construction market and builders just couldn't help themselves and dipped deep into the well of corruption and built a vast surplus of cheap houses.
Notice, I'm blaming illegal alien below market wages, the federal reserve bank system, and finally, Barnie Frank!
I think you'll find him on the side of NINJA Loans and Illegal Alien labor.
I think if we can get Barnie dragged into court and punished appropriately, the credit markets will improve simply by their managers becoming more prudent given the example of what happens to Barnie. Bonus systems must, of course, be balanced with Penalties!
You are forgetting the money the Fed has dumped into these failed institutions-over a trillion dollars...not all TARP money...it’s a losing proposition to proclaim that the poor people and not Wall Street are to blame...for God sakes do you never want the GOP to win another election?
You have GOP geniuses criticizing extending unemployment benefits...Mark Sanford-Mr. I want to be president-waited until the last hour literally to extend unemployment even though his state is really hit hard with unemployment...Now he’s not sure he needs stimulus money...what a moron. You have the GOP fools loudly proclaiming that we don’t need a stimulus of any sort...most Americans think we do. They just want a good plan. You have Shelby opining that American cars will never be competitive-oops just lost the Mid West swing states including Ohio which no GOP president has ever lost in the 20th century or the 21st century. Now, the brainiacs are defending the bailed out Wall Street banks. Up is down. Stupid is as stupid does.
The bonuses are to individuals, indivuals not yet identified. So it could very well be bonuses to the currency trader who made the company millions beyound expected, or the bond trader, or the mergers and acquisition people, all performing well. But because the people who invested in bad mortgages did poorly, these other individuals should not be compensated although performing to their employment agreement? Should a star ballplayer who bats 350 while on a losing team be required to return his salary because the remainder of the team failed to live up?
Also, Bernie will probably die before he goes to jail...there is talk that he will make restitution of the original amount of the investment-no interest and may actually walk away or get a slap on the wrist. I have a friend- her brother made a loan to his Mother who was having financial difficulties...he did 13 months in the federal pen. It seems we have a different kind of justice for the Bernies, the Thanes and alla the rest of these creeps.
They were "fighting inflation" that wasn't happening ~ oil prices were going up ~
Made it look like insiders at the Fed were trying to manipulate the stock market.
At the same time the Fed was creating millions of bad mortgages.
The poor people who quit paying mortgages were VICTIMS.
I'd prefer a system that helps everyone, not just a select few.
Wall Street will open below 8000 on Monday based on the futures...they didn’t make money. The market is down by all measures almost 50 %. Also, we are talking about bailed out companies that would be in Chapter 7 liquidation but for the government money. Thus no one made any money for the company because the company had to go to Uncle Sam and beg for money.
I understand the argument- what if the commodity trader made money but the mortgage trader did not...well we must reward the person who made money for the company-right?. No, you can not reward your employees even the good ones if your are insolvent as a company. The bottom line is just that a bottom line; The company must do well in order to afford bonuses and large salaries. This ridiculous system is one of the reasons these Wall Street banks failed.
Everyone was looking out for their little piece and no one was looking out for the entire business or the shareholders.The fact that Wall Street doesn’t get that disturbs me. Talk about a bad business model! Of course being masters of the universe, they were not subject to the humiliation the car CEO’s endured when they had to go to Congress and beg.
I think recent college graduates need help...loans should be deferred. Hopefully, many can live at home for now. I would like to see some sort of useful program created that gave jobs to recent grads...I believe in green jobs. Now don’t jump all over me-my reason is national security. I don’t believe in stupid global warming, but I do believe we need to get off oil so we can stop giving our enemies money that will be used against us. The government will have to be involved just as they were in putting a man on the moon because of cost considerations.
My son is going into the Air Force this summer. He wants to serve his country and be trained for a decent job...there are college benefits as well.
Still, Unemployment benefits must be extended. I hate to think what would happen to the GOP if soup kitchens and breadlines appear because people don’t have jobs and have lost their unemployment due to the GOP finding principle in such a course and-not to mention the suffering of the American people. Not everything is about elections...Of course being an election junkie, I see things that way quite often.
I might add that not only am I losing my job because of this meltdown which I do blame on the financial sector, but I lost the kid’s college money as well. Since I will be unemployed, my losses will be permanent. I don’t have the luxury of sitting tight and waiting for things to improve. What I have left will be sold, I will either take it in check form or roll it over...no matter what. My losses will be permanent.My son wants to serve anyway, but It makes me feel like crap.
I agree with what you said in this post...the Federal reserve is to blame and poor people were victims...I saw a woman on television who had put down 40,000 dollars on a 120,000 dollar mortgage. Wells Fargo, put her in subprime; she could have gone prime or at least FHA. Her mortgage is one of those crazy ones so now she is paying a huge mortgage payment and in danger of foreclosure. Yes, buyer beware; but mortgages are complicated and the average person falls for these scams all the time
Did you know that Eloan was the first to start putting credit scores online because so many people were being lied to and told they had low score when they didn’t. The Eloan guy thought this was unfair. Wells Fargo should be ashamed. I never liked this company.
A blinded Alan Blinder fails to see any Fed missteps in creating ...
Jan 27, 2009 ... In the January 24 New York Times, Alan S. Blinder, professor of ... "Wild Derivatives": Blinder suggests that derivatives should have been ...
mises.org/.../a-blinded-alan-blinder-fails-to-see-the-role-of-the-fed-s-interest- rate-manipulation-in-creating-the-financial-crisis.as... - 35k - Cached - Similar pages -Economic View - Six Errors on the Path to the Financial Crisis ...
Jan 25, 2009 ... WILD DERIVATIVES In 1998, when Brooksley E. Born, then chairwoman of ... Alan S. Blinder is a professor of economics and public affairs at ...
www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/business/economy/25view.html?em - Similar pages -
Alan Blinder wrote a good article that blames wild derivatives for most of this mess
The Mises organization wrote a critique that Blinder never mentions the Feds super easy money policy and I agree on that
It is mentioned that economist Alan Blinder contributes to Democrats but I have to admit that he produces a better analysis than our libertarian freepers. Funny part is Democrats dominate Wall St. Limbaugh says this all the time. So when you blame Wall St you are blaming anarchistic narcissistic money grubbers who just happen to be (big surprise) (mostly) Democrats
All that sucks. The best answer is to get in the best physical shape you can. Take a five mile fast walk each morning first thing. The cold air will clear your mind. God and faith get more important too. I would get walking 10 miles per morning
Interesting article...I would say Wall Street is pretty split in terms of party. However, crooks come in all political persuasions as we have long observed. Thanks for your good wishes and good advice.
Trade barriers increase the costs of goods and services. And they hurt exports making our goods either uncompetitive or inviting other countries or gruops of countries to erect similar trade barriers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.