How big does a bonus have to be to appear on the radar screen of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's investigation of possible compensation abuses by financial firms receiving government bailout money? Apparently, it's $250,000.
According to the Associated Press, Cuomo has subpoenaed Bank of America asking for a list of every executive receiving a bonus of more than that amount over the past two years...That's all well and good, but note that the bankers (and the people who oversee/regulate them) live in a different world from the rest of us, considering an extra year-end bonus of 5-10X most Americans annual salary to be insignificant. And it may be that all they have to do to avoid public scrutiny is to keep bonuses below previous levels."Lenders who receive public funds should use those funds to lend," committee chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) said at the hearing. "Many are failing to do so."
In his earlier letter to the nine banks, Cuomo had warned that corporate expenditures and payments, made in the absence of fair consideration by undercapitalized firms, may subject the banks to prosecution. His big concern is that the banks are using government bailout money to pay the bonuses.
"Obviously, we will have grave concerns if your expected bonus pool has increased in any way as a result of your receipt or expected receipt of taxpayer funds from TARP."
Perhaps it will be managed better than this. I shouldn't pre-judge. But I have this nagging sense that an immense swindle is being perpetuated under the aegis of the Bailout. They better be fully transparent re those funds, or the blogosphere is going to be on their backsides...
(link found at the new shelton wet/dry)
I think they're just so far removed from the rest of us from years of playing with all that money that they just don't get it. That's where Congress had better step in and explain.
ReplyDeleteCongress? Step in an explain? You've got to be kidding me! Those fools couldn't command a rubber raft on a sunny day much less run a country or explain to our financial industry the concepts of reality. Every dollar the tax payers spend on these fools needs to be paid back, with interest, over a period of years. No bonuses, no AIG style meetings, no more caviar, no more bailout. Geeze, liberals hate it. Conservatives hate it. When will Paulson be sacked!
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