Punching Stupid and Evil in the Face Since 1986!

"We are on strike, we the men of the mind. We are on strike against self-immolation. We are on strike against the creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties."-John Galt

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Fickle Fools and Wall Street Money

This week the stock market is revving back up in to "oh-we're-so-happy" territory, so all the outrage and angst over banking bonuses has fallen by the way-side.......It's no longer worth getting all worked up about because the folks are getting money back in their 401k's and stock portfolio's-until they tank again. Then I'm sure the "Pay Czar" will be back, using all those retroactive clauses in the addendum to the TARP funds.

Today was a good day to be on Wall Street. The Dow nosed above 10,000. Big banks are enjoying resurgent profits and assembling pay packages that could be bigger than the boom year of 2007, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Did something bad happen last year?

Is it time for another storm of populist outrage in Washington? Maybe, but not today.

After indulging in a round of populist outrage last spring, Congress and the Obama administration have turned down the volume. 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. Institutions that receive bailout funds are still subject to certain limits on executive pay. Feinberg is wrangling with American International Group, one of the biggest bailout recipients, over bonuses the company says it’s obligated to pay to certain executives.
It would seem then, all the outrage last spring was just a show for the "regular folk". Once the beast was quelled with rising balances the injustices and inequities no longer matter.
Hmmmm, fickle fools and Wall Street-a match made in heaven.

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