What to Do About Bankers’ Bonuses

What to Do About Bankers’ Bonuses
Published: January 15, 2010

I agree with this letter published in today's NYT:




To the Editor:


At some obscure point in my nearly four score life span, the banks have transmuted from being the lubrication system for the engine of our economy to being treated like the engine itself. How did we let this happen?

The banks create nothing, yet they siphon off significant amounts of wealth that could be put to better use in creating a more just and valid society.

Ray Nord
Naples, Fla., Jan. 13, 2010

and on salaries in excess of 50 times minimum wage.



Screw that. Nationalize the banks and fire the idiots who screwed us. Break them into small components and enact serious regulation to keep them out of the speculating business.

These execs should have never gotten those bonuses in the first place. Seize all of it. And beyond that, we should seize other banking assets as well to help recoup much of the damage they've caused.

If We the Sheople don't like what a business is doing, we have the option of not patronizing that business. If We want to send a larger message, then we can encourage and participate in boycotts of a business. Instead of demanding that a compromised government take what can only be compromised action, we should be activists in our daily lives, encouraging like-minded people to do the same. I don't see a People's effort to divest in banks. We the Sheople have what we deserve through out own passivity and ineffectiveness.

Yesterday, I attended a business lunch, and I used cash to pay the bill. I told my three coworkers and the server that I was paying cash instead of using a credit card so that Bank of America or CitBank wouldn't make any money on the transaction. They all looked at me like I was unusual. And they are correct--my tactic means nothing if only I am doing it. When millions of people stop using credit card and pay cash instead, then it will have an economic impact.

When millions of people buy local and U.S. made products, foreign-made products that used to be made here, then it will have an impact.

When millions of people shun the mainstream media, whose sole purpose these days is to deliver an audience to their commercial sponsors, then it will have an impact.

We currently exist like herd animals. We graze until a predator shows up, then we mill around and act agitated until one of us is picked off and we can all go safely back to grazing. We trust the Party like the herd animal trusts the herder, and we are bad herd animals if we consider life outside the Party fence.

We have exactly the government and the culture we deserve, because it is of our own making. The banksters deserve what they get, because they are playing the game smarter and more aggressive than we are.

It really is that simple. Accept the status quo, or change the status quo, but stop supporting a status quo we claim to hate by participating in it.

Can't they see that they are forging their own chains?

Why in the world would ANYONE do business with CITI or BOA? Why do people insist on keeping credit cards?

If you (generic "you", not "you, Goldstein") recognize that the financial system is thoroughly corrupt and holding our society hostage, why do you continue to voluntarily participate in it?

Your post is absolutely right on, and its message needs to be repeated over and over.

Thank you,
sw

Yeah. The banks bamboozle us with their loan schemes, gamble our money on a tilted roulette table, come crying to and threatening us when they have to take a loss, and then use the money we rescued them with for unimaginable bonuses. They should burn in hell.

That was a great LTTE. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for posting that little gem!

GOLDMAN SACHS CEO turned Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson wasn't the first, or the last, to use the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington. Here's a short list of Obama officials who got their start in the private sector—many, like Paulson, at "Government Sachs."

OFFICIAL
CURRENT ROLE IN WASHINGTON
PREVIOUS ROLE ON WALL STREET

Neal Wolin
Deputy secretary of the treasury (Tim Geithner's No. 2)
Exec at one of the largest insurance and investment firms

Mark Patterson
Treasury secretary's chief of staff
Goldman Sachs lobbyist

Gene Sperling
Counselor to the treasury secretary
Made nearly $900,000 advising Goldman Sachs

Larry Summers
Obama's chief economic adviser
Made $5 million as managing director of a hedge fund

Rahm Emanuel
White House chief of staff
Made $16 million as a partner at a Chicago investment bank

Herbert Allison
Assistant secretary of the treasury (oversees TARP)
Longtime exec at Merrill Lynch; headed Fannie Mae

Kim Wallace
Assistant secretary of the treasury for legislative affairs
Managing director at Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers

Karthik Ramanathan
Acting assistant treasury secretary for financial markets
Foreign exchange dealer at Goldman Sachs

Matthew Kabaker
Deputy assistant secretary of the treasury
Made $5.8 million at the Blackstone Group in 2008-2009

Lewis Alexander
Counselor to the treasury secretary
Chief economist at Citigroup; paid $2.4 million in 2008-2009

Adam Storch
Managing executive of the SEC's Division of Enforcement
VP of Goldman Sachs' Business Intelligence Group

Lee Sachs
Counselor to the treasury secretary
Made more than $3 million at a New York hedge fund

Gary Gensler
Chairman of Commodity Futures Trading Commission
18 years at Goldman Sachs, where he made partner

Michael Froman
Deputy assistant to Obama, deputy nat'l security adviser
Managing director of a Citigroup investment arm


This chart is part of Mother Jones' coverage of the financial crisis, one year later.