President Obama called Wall Street bonuses as “shameful” that banks doled out $18.4 billion as taxpayers bail out companies and the U.S. remains mired in a recession. I call it criminal and every damned one of them that did that should be prosecuted criminally for fraudulently taking the money and spending it in that fashion.
The bonuses are “the height of irresponsibility,” Obama said.
The bonus pool for 2008 by New York City financial companies was the sixth-largest ever amid record losses in the securities industry, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a report yesterday.
Banks and financial firms have fired 265,000 people since the collapse of the subprime mortgage market triggered the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed, while Merrill Lynch & Co. was taken over by Bank of America Corp. and Goldman Sachs Group. and Morgan Stanley converted into bank holding companies. The Treasury Department program has injected about $200 billion into banks across the country from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The Bush Administration and the Congress (yes, including both Democrats and Republicans) that pumped out that money ought to be horsewhipped for not having enough sense to know that greedy Wall Street barons would grab as much money as they could and spend it like they wanted, notwithstanding the American people. Bilked taxpayers should hold them accountable in the 2010 election. [Bloomberg]
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