Gov to pressure Treasury Dept to get back TARP money used for bonuses.

[SSSnail]

Linky

President Barack Obama fed a swelling populist revolt against Wall Street bonuses, calling it ?shameful? that banks doled out $18.4 billion as taxpayers bail out companies and the U.S. remains mired in a recession.

The bonuses are ?the height of irresponsibility,? Obama said today before meeting Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House. Firms need to ?show some restraint and show some discipline,? Obama said.
....

Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who heads the Senate Banking Committee, vowed at a press conference at the Capitol to go beyond condemnation and seek a return of bonuses.

?I?m going to be urging -- in fact not urging, demanding -- that the Treasury Department figures out some way to get the money back,? Dodd said. ?This is unacceptable.?

The senator said he will force executives whose companies received taxpayer aid to testify before his committee to explain their bonuses.

I'm Sssnail and I approve of this message. Make the criminals pay, make them pay interests on it too and while they're at it, seize their assets.

 

[babylon5]

President Barack Obama hammered Wall Street institutions Thursday for what he called "shameful" bonuses, saying it is the "height of irresponsibility" to ask for help from taxpayers and continue to reward executives with handsome pay packages.

"There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses. Now is not that time,"

"When I saw an article today that indicates that Wall Street bankers had given themselves $20 billion worth of bonuses, the same amount of bonuses as they gave themselves in 2004, at a time when most of these institutions are teetering on collapse and they are asking for taxpayers to help sustain them, and when taxpayers find themselves in the difficult position that if they don't provide help then the entire system could come down on top of our heads, that is the height of irresponsibility," President Obama told reporters.

"It is shameful."

http://online.wsj.com/article/...ml?mod=googlenews_wsj#
-----------------------------

Good to hear Obama makes it clear he won't allow Wall Street to give bonuses with taxpayers money in these times. Change is what Wall Street needed instead of good old boy business as usual.

 

[dahunan]

I am in full agreement.. but I also hope no Politicians allow themselves to get pay raises or bonuses right now either.. they let much of this happen

Wasting time on BS like Baseball and Steroids .. they need to get back to reality of stopping the criminals who are out to do this great nation harm

 

[Lemon law]

Gotta agree, we did not bail out these idiots so they could pay bonuses to idiots.

 

[StageLeft]

Good fvcking luck getting that back. lol

However, I applaud the effort, although fvck them for letting it happen in the first place. Clearly those dimwitted turds didn't put enough strings on the money they released, did they? So, ultimately they sure won't get a cheer from me anymore than cheering somebody for cleaning sh*t off my doorstep after they put it there in the first place.

 

[erub]

Indeed, although they probably feel like they deserve it.

 

[dahunan]

^^^ Embarassing isn't it - our nation is run by DOLTS! or Was?

 

[Xellos2099]

One thing he fail at mentioning is that New York state face some budget problem because they received less tax from those big rich executive because they get less bonus than before.

 

[SSSnail]

I don't think it was stupidity, but calculated robberies. They're not at all stupid, because they pulled off the biggest heist of all in the history of this nation, and get away.

 

[compuwiz1]

Originally posted by: erub
Indeed, although they probably feel like they deserve it.

It's all those yuppies with their sense of entitlement. :thumbsdown:

 

[Slew Foot]

I must say I agree with Obama on this one, f the banks.

 

[Budmantom]

Originally posted by: babylon5
President Barack Obama hammered Wall Street institutions Thursday for what he called "shameful" bonuses, saying it is the "height of irresponsibility" to ask for help from taxpayers and continue to reward executives with handsome pay packages.

"There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses. Now is not that time,"

"When I saw an article today that indicates that Wall Street bankers had given themselves $20 billion worth of bonuses, the same amount of bonuses as they gave themselves in 2004, at a time when most of these institutions are teetering on collapse and they are asking for taxpayers to help sustain them, and when taxpayers find themselves in the difficult position that if they don't provide help then the entire system could come down on top of our heads, that is the height of irresponsibility," President Obama told reporters.

"It is shameful."

http://online.wsj.com/article/...ml?mod=googlenews_wsj#
-----------------------------

Good to hear Obama makes it clear he won't allow Wall Street to give bonuses with taxpayers money in these times. Change is what Wall Street needed instead of good old boy business as usual.

That Obama he means business!!!

 

[alien42]

Originally posted by: Budmantom

Originally posted by: babylon5
President Barack Obama hammered Wall Street institutions Thursday for what he called "shameful" bonuses, saying it is the "height of irresponsibility" to ask for help from taxpayers and continue to reward executives with handsome pay packages.

"There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses. Now is not that time,"

"When I saw an article today that indicates that Wall Street bankers had given themselves $20 billion worth of bonuses, the same amount of bonuses as they gave themselves in 2004, at a time when most of these institutions are teetering on collapse and they are asking for taxpayers to help sustain them, and when taxpayers find themselves in the difficult position that if they don't provide help then the entire system could come down on top of our heads, that is the height of irresponsibility," President Obama told reporters.

"It is shameful."

http://online.wsj.com/article/...ml?mod=googlenews_wsj#
-----------------------------

Good to hear Obama makes it clear he won't allow Wall Street to give bonuses with taxpayers money in these times. Change is what Wall Street needed instead of good old boy business as usual.

That Obama he means business!!!

did you even read the link you posted?

"Fed officials told the Associated Press that the severance payment was from a retirement fund. Since Geithner was not retiring, he was able to cash out the current value of the fund."

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: dahunan
I am in full agreement.. but I also hope no Politicians allow themselves to get pay raises or bonuses right now either.. they let much of this happen

Wasting time on BS like Baseball and Steroids .. they need to get back to reality of stopping the criminals who are out to do this great nation harm

In some ways, I'd rather have them talk about baseball and steriods just so they don't put their hands on something else to fuck up.

 

[mugs]

If Obama replaced "It is shameful" with "They're the dumbasses who had a large part in causing our current mess," he'd have my vote locked up. I want a president who has the balls to publicly call someone a dumbass if they're a dumbass.

 

[LegendKiller]

Ahh, gotta love lumping everybody into one bucket. This is nice populist class-war bullshit.

Anybody notice what the market did when he said that?

 

[nobodyknows]

Originally posted by: mugs
If Obama replaced "It is shameful" with "They're the dumbasses who had a large part in causing our current mess," he'd have my vote locked up. I want a president who has the balls to publicly call someone a dumbass if they're a dumbass.

Oh I don't know. Since their the ones with the money and we're the ones bailing them out I think "shameful" is a better word then "dumb asses".

 

[nobodyknows]

Originally posted by: LegendKiller
Ahh, gotta love lumping everybody into one bucket. This is nice populist class-war bullshit.

Anybody notice what the market did when he said that?

So now we have to bail them out AND kiss their ass. Screw that.

 

[fskimospy]

Originally posted by: LegendKiller
Ahh, gotta love lumping everybody into one bucket. This is nice populist class-war bullshit.

Anybody notice what the market did when he said that?

Aren't you one of those people who is (correctly) calling people morons when they try to attribute small political news tidbits to market action?

What is more likely, that traders were impacted to the tune of a 200 point decline because of an Obama frowny face, or because our economy fucking sucks right now?

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: SSSnail
I don't think it was stupidity, but calculated robberies. They're not at all stupid, because they pulled off the biggest heist of all in the history of this nation, and get away.

Actually, this is my take on what happened.

1. Merrill sees that they are obviously going bankrupt.
2. Merrill finds a buyer (Bank Of America)
3. Buyer gets bailout from the Fed.
4. Buyer gets MASSIVE tax break from the fed on the purchase price of Merrill.
5. Buyer tells Merrill to go nuts with the bonuses, but it has to be done BEFORE final acquisition.
6. Merrill people get early, huge bonuses. Even the normal employees.
7. Buyer takes bonus money (and toxic debt, and anything else they can think of), writes it all off as a loss, and gets a tax break equal to the amount of the bonuses.
...
8. Buyer goes back to the Fed and asks for more bailout funds.



Brilliant, really.

 

[abaez]

I wonder if the people who got the bonuses give a crap? This is like your mom slapping your hand and telling you not to do it again. How about any company getting TARP money does not give out bonuses? And we sell off their corporate jets?

 

[Kelvrick]

Need more info. Does that total include only firms that are asking for federal help? Doesn't matter what the fuck obama says if he's still going to give them shit.

He's still thinking about the 1-2 trillion for the financial institutions for buying bad debt. Why not just create a government invested new private bank and let the current ones fall? It'll cancel out the lost jobs at the current banks with the new jobs needed at the new bank. Let it be run privately by a selected board, government gets all profits and public overview of financial statements. It'll be a lot cheaper as well.

Those are just my crazy thoughts though, maybe I'm a dumbass.

 

[LegendKiller]

Originally posted by: eskimospy

Originally posted by: LegendKiller
Ahh, gotta love lumping everybody into one bucket. This is nice populist class-war bullshit.

Anybody notice what the market did when he said that?

Aren't you one of those people who is (correctly) calling people morons when they try to attribute small political news tidbits to market action?

What is more likely, that traders were impacted to the tune of a 200 point decline because of an Obama frowny face, or because our economy fucking sucks right now?

Link to where I said that?

 

[JS80]

40% taken by taxes, only 60% more to go :laugh:

 

[SSSnail]

Originally posted by: LegendKiller
Ahh, gotta love lumping everybody into one bucket. This is nice populist class-war bullshit.

Anybody notice what the market did when he said that?

It has NOTHING to do with what was said, the market tanks because of concrete earning data, not because of some crooks' potential fate.

Edit: technically, this is a repost, but meh. <shifty eyes>