Also, Breeze, for the record, these big wigs are not my “cronies,” as you suggest. I’m a small potato in the whole scheme of things (fortunately). I deal exclusively with community banks, almost all with less than $2 billion in assets. The folks that I deal with are not the ones that have put the system at risk, although there are plenty of community bankers, generically, that have done galactically stupid things (like making too many silly construction loans).
I’m outraged by a lot of this shit as well. Specifically, yesterday’s announcement that Merrill paid out $3-$4 billion in bonuses shortly before the BofA merger closed. I also post from time to time over at nakedcapitalism (a great site) where I’m Hu Flung Pu (I’m very mature, you see). Here’s my post from last night (on the Merrill bonus payments):
‘Hu Flung Pu said…
It’s bullshit like this that (a) undermines the “legitimate” work that lots of folks are trying to do to keep the financial system from imploding, and (b) makes me want to kick these asshats in the nutsack… repeatedly.
I want to say “unbelievable.” But unfortunately it’s par for the course given what we’ve seen thus far. Just wow.’
Anyhow, as I’ve said before, my only interest is in not letting the whole system implode. But beyond that, we should be extracting as much pain as possible from bank investors and executives. In a lot of cases, that means wiping them out. I have no problem with that.
