xcel
01-29-2009, 08:26 PM
The President calls payouts as firms seek bailouts "the height of irresponsibility." (http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jan2009/db20090129_707519.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_top+story)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/NYSE_on_Wall_Street.jpgPhil Mintz and Theo Francis – Business Week – Jan. 28, 2009
The pillars of power (Wall Street) continue on their path of greed and destruction.
Irresponsibility does not even come close to describing these jack @$$es stealing the nations wealth with the complicity of congress :mad: -- Ed.
One day after a report that Wall Street firms paid out an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses even as the financial industry was imploding and requiring a federal bailout, outrage flowed—from the online grass roots to Washington, D.C.
On Jan. 29, in brief but stern remarks in the Oval Office, President Barack Obama called the bonuses "shameful" and "the height of irresponsibility." Obama, sitting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, made clear that executive compensation—already expected to be a central focus of the new Congress—would be a key factor in his economic team's proposals to stabilize the financial system and improve regulation in the sector. But "part of what we're going to need is for folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint, and show some discipline, and show some sense of responsibility," he said.
On Capitol Hill, Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee, said he was demanding that the Treasury Dept. figure out a way to get the money back. "You're never going to get any support for the continued tough decisions we have to make if this kind of behavior continues. So I'm going to look at every possible legal means and otherwise to see that this money gets paid back," said Dodd. "This infuriates the American people, and rightly so.”...
DiNapoli noted that the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which poured billions into the firms, kept many of them afloat. While the program restricted the size of bonuses for top-level employees, there was no such restriction for lower-level employees. "Taxpayers have invested billions of dollars to stabilize the nation's bank and financial institutions, and there are plans to make additional investments to shore up the banking system," DiNapoli said in a news release. "There needs to be greater transparency and accountability in the use of these funds.”...
Meanwhile, the idea of paying bonuses after many firms have collapsed or required bailouts unleashed a torrent of criticism on the Web. As one commenter wrote on the New York Times (http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2009/01/29/business/29bonus.html) Web site: "This is hard to believe and impossible to read with equanimity. Wall Street should be hanging [its] head with shame. Instead, it plunges forward with mad self-enrichment at the expense of the rest of the country, even the rest of the world!" ... http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jan2009/db20090129_707519.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_top+story
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/NYSE_on_Wall_Street.jpgPhil Mintz and Theo Francis – Business Week – Jan. 28, 2009
The pillars of power (Wall Street) continue on their path of greed and destruction.
Irresponsibility does not even come close to describing these jack @$$es stealing the nations wealth with the complicity of congress :mad: -- Ed.
One day after a report that Wall Street firms paid out an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses even as the financial industry was imploding and requiring a federal bailout, outrage flowed—from the online grass roots to Washington, D.C.
On Jan. 29, in brief but stern remarks in the Oval Office, President Barack Obama called the bonuses "shameful" and "the height of irresponsibility." Obama, sitting with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, made clear that executive compensation—already expected to be a central focus of the new Congress—would be a key factor in his economic team's proposals to stabilize the financial system and improve regulation in the sector. But "part of what we're going to need is for folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint, and show some discipline, and show some sense of responsibility," he said.
On Capitol Hill, Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee, said he was demanding that the Treasury Dept. figure out a way to get the money back. "You're never going to get any support for the continued tough decisions we have to make if this kind of behavior continues. So I'm going to look at every possible legal means and otherwise to see that this money gets paid back," said Dodd. "This infuriates the American people, and rightly so.”...
DiNapoli noted that the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which poured billions into the firms, kept many of them afloat. While the program restricted the size of bonuses for top-level employees, there was no such restriction for lower-level employees. "Taxpayers have invested billions of dollars to stabilize the nation's bank and financial institutions, and there are plans to make additional investments to shore up the banking system," DiNapoli said in a news release. "There needs to be greater transparency and accountability in the use of these funds.”...
Meanwhile, the idea of paying bonuses after many firms have collapsed or required bailouts unleashed a torrent of criticism on the Web. As one commenter wrote on the New York Times (http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2009/01/29/business/29bonus.html) Web site: "This is hard to believe and impossible to read with equanimity. Wall Street should be hanging [its] head with shame. Instead, it plunges forward with mad self-enrichment at the expense of the rest of the country, even the rest of the world!" ... http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/jan2009/db20090129_707519.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_top+story