[John O]

It is a gamed system. Bail outs for failure? Backstopping bad loans? TARP? Selling securities out the front then shorting them out the back? Risking depositor money that is backed by the FDIC (taxpayers?) How about getting money from the Fed at 0% then loaning back in the form of T-Bills? What about taking that money and earning big profits in the stock market?

Are any of those issues the fault of the bankers or the fault of the government weenies who refused to let the market correct itself? (I vote government)

If you give a company billions with no restrictions on how they use the money then you cannot complain when they give their people bonuses out of it. Face it, those billions will put unexpected millions of profit right on the bottom line. The executives who negotiated the payments deserve those bonuses. They put more money in their shareholders pockets.

Of course the government weenies who came up with the idea, and who carried it out, need to be canned.

[misterrob]

I don’t expect the bankers to do anything other than further their self interests. However, the government does have a duty to regulate when the taxpayer is at risk. Listening to these institutions whine about being denied the ability to operate as hedgies or that they are not going to be be able to gamble with the full faith and credit of the federal government is what I have no tolerance for.