Report: $1.6 billion went to executives at bailed out Wall Street banks last year.
By on Dec 22nd, 2008 at 9:50 am
Report: $1.6 billion went to executives at bailed out Wall Street banks last year.
An Associated Press analysis finds that the executives of Wall Street firms that have been bailed out by taxpayer dollars received “$1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses and other benefits” last year. “Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management.” Meanwhile, the AP separately reports that — “after receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers” — the nation’s largest banks can’t provide “specific answers” about how they’re spending the money.
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It’s no wonder that they were about to go under if they can’t keep track of 333 billion dollars!
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:01 amSome people get the goldmine, some people get the shaft.
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:01 amRepublicans have no problem throwing money away at Wall Street with no transparency or accountability, yet when it comes to the auto industry, which effects millions of middle class workers, they have no problem letting them either fail, or taking the opportunity to bust unions up.
When will Americans realize conservative republicans don’t give a Goddamn about this country???
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:05 amThe phrase, “Totally absurd” does not even begin to be descriptive enough. Our government and the corporotocracy have screwed us. I am just inches shy of declaring this all to be hopeless. Happy freaking holidays.
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:08 amThis says it all:
http://tpzoo.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/sponsor-an-executive/
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:40 amMeanwhile, back at Wall St., the banks themselves don’t even know where the money is going.
Chicken Little Paulson swore to Congress that the sky would fall in 48 hours if they didn’t immediately fork over $750B.
America, you’re watching the biggest financial swindle in history unfold before your very eyes. That huge sucking sound is the economy groaning under the weight of deregulation & greed.
All bow to Wall St., America’s new Profit…
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 amthe nation’s largest banks can’t provide “specific answers” about how they’re spending the money.
Aaaaaaaaaand….. I’m supposed to believe that the largest financial institutions in America cannot provide specific answers about where billions of dollars given to them have gone? Really? If that is the case, why would I want to trust them with ANY of my (paltry) money? Why would anyone? These are the kinds of institutions who would note IMMEDIATELY that a payment check to them was $0.42 short (and issue a late payment fee to go with it). Really?
No, REALLY? Their contempt for the American people is breathtaking. I don’t think OBL has that much contempt. That were are expected to:
1) believe that they cannot account for a few billion dollars of welfare that were just recently given to them.
2) Just let it all go at that.
The entire justification for this unprecedented welfare money seems to have been dropped entirely. We were told that the entire US economy would completely collapse in days without this money. Now its out, and things are still bad, and the banks have NOT really changed how they have been acting. Credit is still frozen, homes are still being foreclosed on. So, where is the great boon that this ridiculoous amount of money was supposed to bestow upon our economy?
Investigate, audit, and prosecute where necessary.
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:50 amWe need an executive order rescinding the bailout, seizing what remains of the TARP funds, freezing the accounts of any bank which refuses to return the money, until some new new rules can be implemented in this mess. Right now it’s just robbery.
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:54 am— the nation’s largest banks can’t provide “specific answers” about how they’re spending the money.
Funny, I’m a bookkeeper that has 16 companies to write checks for and I can tell you where every single penny goes. Why is it that the nation’s largest banks cannot?
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:57 amI thought it had been awhile since I had sex turns out I been getting it on a regular basis. I am just not enjoying it like I thought I would
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:14 amWhy are these guys always obsessed with security? Are they getting caught up in some kind of James Bond arch-villain lifestyle? I laughed when the big three auto CEOs claimed they needed to travel by corporate jet for security reasons. They’re not famous, not even infamous, just rich and greedy and hardly anyone cares who they are or if they live or die.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 amThe money these banks are sucking up is taxpayer money, OUR MONEY, to save their sorry asses. Since this is OUR MONEY, we deserve an exact and transparent accounting where every penny is going. It is our right to know where OUR MONEY is being spent. When my wife and I got our home loan many years ago, the banks and finance companies were more invasive than my proctologist! Now it is their turn.
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:59 amA bank will bounce your check for being 2 cents short.
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:02 pmThey know where every penny of it is.
Any other explanation is a lie.
Long ago when sports stars started commanding ridiculous salaries for batting a ball around I saw this kind of outrageous excess beginning. It was only a matter of time that the executives would find ways to elevate themselves on the pedestal and pretend that they were somehow more knowing and more valuable.
The most telling of all though is that we fed on it. “People” magazine, “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” we ate it up. The masses collectively worship the wealth of others and aspire to the same. From birth they are told that this the measure of their success. The illusion is always maintained that anyone can achieve such levels of “greatness” through “hard work” and by supporting “Capitalism and the Free markets”.
This means of pacifying the masses is not new. It is how the wealthiest Romans kept all of their great wealth and their empires masses living in poverty via “bread and circuses” and the weekly bloodletting at the Forum.
So when the masses are ready to engage in what truly has become a war against the myth of the golden carrot let me know. Until then it’s just a lot of hot air.
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:07 pmIf this doesn’t boil your blood, you must be dead:
Robin Hood tax scheme on a national level.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/the-10-worst-bailout-boondoggles-slides.aspx
Our tax money going to pay the salaries of MLB players?
That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:10 pmawesome
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:18 pmRalph Nader said put a 1% tax on stock transactions and it brings in $1 Trillion per year.
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:22 pmmy taxes. awesome
December 22nd, 2008 at 3:53 pmThis is exactly why the bailout was wrong.
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:05 pmHistory will show that the so-called “bail-out” is the biggest heist in history of mankind. All done at the collaboration of the Bush administration and the corrupt Democrats in congress. The banks only need to fill out a two-page form to get tens, if not hundreds, billions of taxpayers’ money. At the same time, taxpayers would have to fill out literally a stack of papers to obtain a $10,000 loan!
This goes to show that the banks in fact own the US of America and the rest of us are nothing but slaves to them.
Capitalism and the pyramid system work so well in America, at the expense of justice and security of the majority of Americans.
I am smelling in the air the word “r e v o l u t i o n”.
December 25th, 2008 at 2:29 pm