[Oldeconomybuyer]

Beware of the media-political complex.

[BenLurkin]

The Board of Directors sets compensation. If the major shareholders found it to be “excessive” then the Board would withhold approval.

[wiseprince]

Bad precedent

[org.whodat]

Top bankers “convinced the world that they were the smartest human beings on the face of the earth…. It turns out they weren’t all that smart.”

He did hit a home run with that one, but they still have the loot?

[Pietro]

I knew this was coming, and in a certain sense these guys brought it on themselves but still its a terrible precedent and deeply disturbing.

[jennyjenny]

Am I right in that it was perfectly okay for these guys to give money to obama and contribute to his inauguration, but not okay to pay themselves a bonus?

[Major Matt Mason]

I don't like the fact that incompetent bankers were rewarded for screwing up, but this is a terrible idea. How long before the government decides what everyone can make, not just executives? This is un-American, period.

[Waco]

How much is a good pitcher worth nowadays, a quarter back, a singer with a BIG nose? Makes ya feel real good, don’t it?

[DoughtyOne]

They’ve been demonizing corporate leaders for some time now. Now that demonization is allowing Obama the space to force his will on corporations.

Last year Paulson called in a number of large banks and forced them to take bail-out funds. In some instances those banks didn’t want them. They were given them anyway.

Now Obama comes along and makes the case that since the federal government has bailed entities out, it should have a say in their operations.

You’ve got to love the beauty of the way both parties job the system.

1. You pass bills that demand lending institutions make loans to people who can’t pay them back
2. The president signs on the dotted line (”Here, did you get your pen...)
3. The attorney general of the United States takes one corporation to court to enforce the new law, stating other heads will roll
4. Pretty much all lending institutions fall in line, providing these suicidal loans
5. Lending institutions recognize how bad the loans are, so they bundle the paper and sell it to others
6. Sooner or later, the ponzi scheme folds
7. The government expresses shock, “How could this happen? The executives of these entities are crooks!”
8. The government jumps in to bail out, taking trillions of taxpayer money, and the printing presses on full speed, to accomplish it
9. The government then states that it has been noble to bail out these lending institutions, then forces it’s will on them
10. When business can’t borrow money, the government blames them for mismanagement too
11. The government bails them out
12. Then the government talks about their mismanagement, as if any business could withstand 45% of their customers being too afraid to spend money

This is the government’s twelve step program. Note there wasn’t any criticism of who caused all this mess, namely the Congress and Presidency of the United States.

And the damage is global. The new power is invigorating...

And of course there’s always the fact that both political party’s members will blame the other for the mess.

And so it goes, those who ——ed us, walking off into the sunset, another job well done.

[freekitty]

Everyone except Obama.

[CriticalJ]

Wonderful move for conservatives.

Now, banks won’t take the bail out or there leaders will become huge advocates of change in leadership which is change we believe in.

[Lockbox]

Old Soviet saying

They pretend to pay us, we pretend to work.......

[penelopesire]

“But he also said the new guidelines are “only the beginning of a long-term effort” to realign the way business leaders are paid, beyond the banking industry and other firms getting bailouts.”

So the Obama Administration is going to try to set pay in the future for PRIVATE COMPANIES IN THE US TOO..whether they get bail-out money or not?

Can we say UNCONSTITUTIONAL?

[texmexis best]

Most of these guys are getting calls from foreighn banks. Some of them will move.

The others will cook up a nice deferred compensation plan that will involve common stock and will require short term maximization of short term profit.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

The government has no right to set pay levels. This is illegal and unconstitutional.

[keepitreal]

I’d like to end the era of excess, too. I think public “servants” like the Clintons, Daschle, and some day the Obamas, aren’t allowed to sell access and become millionaires when they leave office.

[biff]

So......what is to stop these outfits from moving their corporate headquarters to the Caymens, Switzerland, etc????

[dragnet2]

This is all a diversion, with the Federal government kicking up dust in an effort to deflect or obscure the cause of this melt down, when in reality, the Federal Government is the most corrupt of them all, and is the cause of this epic disaster.

[houston1]

it could prompt some talented bankers to leave their posts just when their expertise is most needed

and just where are they going to go to? there are plenty of unemployed bankers who'd be happy to take their place, my neighbor is one of them, been out of work a year in Feb.

[Tempest]

Good for you Mr. Obama, good for you.

I don’t see why wall streeters would whine over this, they’re still getting more than what their H1-B visa replacements will recieve.