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Posted: 7/30/2009 9:13:14 PM | Bank Bonus Tab: $33 Billion
Nine Lenders That Got U.S. Aid Paid at Least $1 Million Each to 5,000 Employees
Wall Street Journal, JULY 31, 2009
By SUSANNE CRAIG and DEBORAH SOLOMON
Nine banks that received government aid money paid out bonuses of nearly $33 billion last year -- including more than $1 million apiece to nearly 5,000 employees -- despite huge losses that plunged the U.S. into economic turmoil.
The Millionaire's Club
Top employees at nine big U.S. banks that received government aid shared a bonus pool of $32.6 billion.
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The $32.6 billion in bonuses is one-third larger than California's budget deficit. Six of the nine banks paid out more in bonuses than they received in profit. One in every 270 employees at the banks received more than $1 million.
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The nine firms in the report had combined 2008 losses of nearly $100 billion. That helped push the financial system to the brink, leading the government to inject $175 billion into the firms through its Troubled Asset Relief Program.
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124896891815094085.html
I'd like to add a personal comment, but I am speechless!  | |
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Posted: 7/30/2009 9:19:14 PM | | I was against this bailout from the start. Failed institution = failed for a reason. | |
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Posted: 7/30/2009 9:43:46 PM | | I'm against it as well. Let these rich bankers bail themselves out. No one bails the poor schleps like us out when we do something wrong. Let them pay with their own money for what they've done to the rest of us. | |
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Posted: 7/30/2009 9:49:37 PM | I recall seeing the reason for this in some article somewhere. Basically it comes down to contractual law. The banks feel they have to pay up to these guys or face even greater losses in the courts.
The irony is that most of these "bonuses" aren't really bonuses at all. Generally speaking , bonuses are awarded based on merit. For the vast majority of people in the world who actually get any kind of a bonus , a failure to properly execute their workplace duties such that the company goes belly-up would constitute grounds for dismissal. In other words , if you're in charge of making sure the company makes money and instead it goes down the drain while you're in charge , you should be looking for another job in a short period of time.
What really screws us though is that we can't allow the banks to fail. If any one of our largest banks failed , it would cost us considerably more to allow it to do so rather than the amount of money it would cost us to keep them afloat. In other words , they've got us by the short and curlies and we need a new way to deal with these guys. | |
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Posted: 7/30/2009 10:00:29 PM | | I think we need to set up a new system and gradually replace our current one with it. | |
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wudger
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Joined: 12/20/2007
Msg: 6 | |
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Posted: 7/30/2009 11:56:50 PM | "I think we need to set up a new system and gradually replace our current one with it."
ummm yeah, but the one you have came from thousands of years of the developement of commerce. do you really think that a nation that can't even come to a reasonable conclusion on how to insure the health of its citizens is going to be able to re-invent commerce? | |
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Posted: 7/31/2009 12:08:50 AM | advanceman,
I think you're right.
This will sound off topic and it probably is but...
I am indeed disturbed by the bonuses, very disturbed. In reality, there is little if anything I or anyone else can do about it, so what can I do?
I heard about something today called voluntary simplicity, don't know much about it yet but I think I'm in. We've got to start somewhere.
When I read your post it occurred to me, "ya know what dipiteee, in your own way, on your own scale (which to be sure in no way approaches the largesse the original post details) you have way more than any human being needs to live a joyful life." There is a more profound life to be had!
I can continue to b!tch and moan about how others are greedy and selfish (and I may well) and/or I can do something about my own greed and selfishness. Hmmm, which will it be?!?
It's late and I have to work tomorrow but I intend to investigate VS. I suspect I will find much there to like and perhaps a new way of life.
Thank you advanceman for planting a seed, as Eckhart Tolle would say, "and that is how we change the world."
: )
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wudger,
do you really think that a nation that can't even come to a reasonable conclusion on how to insure the health of its citizens is going to be able to re-invent commerce?
Good point, but like I said, we have to start somewhere. If we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem. It's not too hard to b!tch about the problem, it really doesn't require much of us. Let me assure you, I know of what I speak, I did it exquisitely while Bush was in charge. It's a new day, I for one am ready for something different. How about you? | |
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Posted: 7/31/2009 1:33:35 AM |
It's a new day, I for one am ready for something different. How about you?
Well, I am "ready for something fun", and those that know me (and some who despise me) over at the semi-hidden politcal forum know I am a fairly conservative person. I am pretty much a stauch believer in capitalism, and all that. And I have to say that this absolutely makes me sick. It is wrong in so many ways I can't even begin to describe it. No one who is still around due to the tax dollars of the American people, the majority of whom could probably have thought of much better ways to spend it, such as putting food on the table or paying their house payment or anything they damn well wanted to do with it, other than giving it to these bunch of thieves. I don't think it's right to spread people's money around when they are rich, doing it when they are barely getting by is immoral. There is a line, that is crossing it, it's a spit directly in the face of everyone who bailed them out. | |
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Posted: 7/31/2009 1:40:20 AM | Just another result of rushing to a solution half-baked without considering all the factors. A total ban on using bailout funds for anything but emergency operating funds, exclusive of prior bonuses and other perks should have been written into the thing from the start. Half-baked...like most other measures taken so far.
I also have contended that zero bailout should have taken place. If they failed, then they failed and market forces would instill someone to take their place. All this artificial propping is what's been killing the economy as well as consumer, taxpyaer and voter confidence and will continue to do so. Something else I've contended from the start.
We'll all be paying for this in one fashion or another for decades to come, provided no more bright ideas involving the careless wasting of public money are implemented. Think...THEN act. | |
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