Wall Street bonuses: Where's the outrage?
After taxpayers bailed out banks, record bonuses return
Wall Street bonus are at an all-time high.
(Corbis/Rudy Sulgan)
Wait a minute, said Hamilton Nolan in Gawker. What year is this? Wall Street, after accepting a huge federal bailout, is preparing to award a record $140 billion in bonuses this year, while "we're cutting the pay of non–Wall Streeters in half, and lowering the minimum wage." So much for responding to the economic crisis by putting a stop to "fiscal profligacy."
Oddly, there was "little of that Tea Party outrage" we've come to expect over these record bonuses, said Johanna Neuman in the Los Angeles Times. "Maybe taxpayers have simply given up on Washington's efforts to corral Wall Street." Or maybe, now that the Dow Jones industrial average has hit 10,000 again, ordinary Americans have moved on.
Congress and the Obama administration told off the banks last spring, said Joe B. White in The Wall Street Journal, but they have gone on to other priorities, such as health care and Afghanistan. Now "technocrats at the Federal Reserve and the Treasury’s pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, have taken over the task of devising ways to make it harder for banks to reward risky behavior without killing competitiveness." But if taxpayers don't "simmer down" too, Wall Street banks still could be hit by another "storm of populist outrage" before long.
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10 Comments
Posted by Tom, Thursday, October 15, 2009, 2:31 pm We don't have time for outrage anymore. We see that the government will do what it wants to, with or without our support. No one cares. The little people down here on Main Street are trying to figure out how to pay our bills, keep our jobs and pay for someone else's health care insurance. We have been beaten down, and no fancy speaking community organizer who doesn't realize that he won the presidency will or can help us. The market might be above 10 thousand, but it will fall, and FALL BIG. Not even BHO will get us out of this depression.
Posted by chairman mao, Thursday, October 15, 2009, 3:39 pm american peasants no longer have outrage....cause commi china the future...liberal usa the past.
Posted by John Gault, Thursday, October 15, 2009, 4:53 pm Everyone has just realized that there are more leeches than producers in this country, and there is nothing we can do about it. Everyone has just become comfortably numb to entire thing. Just sit back take a load off and enjoy the view from the deck as the ship slowly sinks into the ocean. Too bad the true producers don't just stop the engine of the world.
Posted by Tracie, Thursday, October 15, 2009, 5:01 pm We need to focus our outrage in ONE direction. Corporatism in government. It is the root cause of every problem destoying Main Street.Fairelectionsnow.org is a starting place to remove corporate money from campaigns.This isn't the full answer, but it's a start.
Posted by justiceforall, Thursday, October 15, 2009, 10:26 pm I can hope that some of the greedy pigs die of cancer tomorrow, but I don't really know the pigs from the regular guys. For the real pigs, I wish them a life of pain and suffering, that is, a very short life but with much severe pain. Is that outrage? I think so and I think many think as I do.
Posted by Mike, Friday, October 16, 2009, 2:53 am Remind me what the problem is? Firms make money and they reward their Chief Executives? What's the issue? If they owe the government money from the bailouts, then the government should demand repayment with interest. Fine. What other claim do nonshareholders have on how corporations handle their business? Don't want to work for minimum wage? Get an education or skill and increase your value.
Posted by jason, Friday, October 16, 2009, 6:15 pm This is still America... where dreams come true. The more of us that simply give in to the political views of who we are and what we are about, the more the rest of the world believes it. This country was once thought of as a juggernaut, a force to be rekon with. No longer are we the heavy weight champ but instead an overweight chump.
Posted by Dean Corso, Monday, October 19, 2009, 1:38 pm Outrage? Its called indifference and apathy. The Great American Justice System. The new American ethicsinbusiness: Steal as much as you can for as long as you can, anyway you can, and then if you get caught, say nothing and get a hire a good lawyer with your pillaged swag. America has gone from first class to third world to last place on the integrity meter in just 20 years.
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