Sunday, February 15, 2009

More Bailout Blues

Sunday: “They think we are chumps” « The Confluence
"...Johnson pulled back the curtain on the Obama administration’s economic team. In short, it it chock full of financial industry insiders. He also shares a short clip of someone from JP Morgan who is discussing bonuses. Essentially, they are just going to change the name from “bonuses” to “retention awards”. See? Doesn’t that sound better? Those bankers and brokers are not getting bonuses. Nooooo. They are getting awards for staying on. I mean, it’s obvious. No one in their right mind would want to work in this poisonous environment so we have to reward these people for sticking it out.

Johnson also critiques Geithner’s baliout plan and specifically his speech. He praises Geithner for recognizing that the bankers are at fault and should be ashamed of themselves. But then Geithner delivers the equivalent of a slap on the wrist to the bankers by suggesting (because no one really knows what the plan is yet) that he isn’t going to nationalize the banks. Nationalizing is such an unAmerican concept that no one wants to utter the word. We are trapped by our own cultural mythology. Or are we? The fact is that nationalizing has the biggest downside to the people most culpable for the demise of the financial industry in the first place - the bankers. But we can’t do it for fear that we will be commies. How conveeeeeenient..."

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