[quote=flu][quote=CA renter][quote=flu]You know what? As disgusted as I am that some of these Wall Street guys were all bitching about the idea that their bonuses would be cut during the bailout… The way I see it, there really isn’t any difference between them and some of the folks who presumably are public employees defending your right to collect on these over promised under-delivered pension obligations made by our government.
I have colleagues that worked as employees to a lot of these Wall Street “banks”..And a lot of them had “guaranteed bonuses” as part of their hiring contract, regardless of how the companies performed. It’s really no different than some of you public service employees that had a guarantee return on your pension plan, even though the local/state government had no idea it would not be able to honor the contract. The only difference is the amount, which I think a lot of folks would balk at the amount of the bonus guarantee…
Conclusion:
a) if you’re a wall street employee that received your guaranteed bonus, dont be bitching about public service employee pensions…
b) if you’re a public service employee receiving a guaranteed pension with a guaranteed rate of return, don’t be bitching about wall street employees getting their bonus..
A contract is a contract is a contract. And so it applies both way, if you expect the contract of wall street employees to be broken, than you should expect the unreasonable public service pension contracts to be equally broken and rewritten, and vice versa…
Taxpayers unfairly bailed out wall street banks when they couldn’t meet their obligations promised. And Taxpayers are also going to be bailing out the government when they can’t meet their pension obligations….
Anything else is pure hypocrisy and outright jealousy (only in the amount of the received).
And it’s nothing more than demonstrating “do as I say not as I do” type of mentality imho.
For everyone else that doesn’t belong in either catagories, and essentially bending over twice for a gangbang on both sides…bitch away, as long as you bitch consistently.[/quote]
One BIG difference: Wall Street caused the bubbles that resulted in the “over-promised” pensions. The public employers were not originating mortgages nor creating “financial innovations.” They were buying these things and making decisions based on what Wall Street, the ratings agencies, and the Federal Reserve were telling them. Wall Street ran prices up so high, and leveraged things so far, that an implosion was inevitable.
Imagine a scenario where you were robbed, and instead of going to jail, the robbers were able to keep all your property AND have you pay additional amounts for their “pain and suffering” during their trials. Imagine a world in which they were able to turn public opinion against you as well (robbery victims are just whiny, entitled jerks, after all). Think you’d be cool with just letting it all go, or do you think you’d fight back?
Again, I don’t care if we all take a hit. Just make those responsible for our mess take the first — and largest — hit.[/quote]
Who/what part of “wall street” caused this problem?
Wall street bankers that did M&A or
Wall street bankers that were underwriters for IPO’s or
Wall street bankers that were involved in CDO’s
or who?
Or all of them? You don’t know, because well, sorry, most folks on Main Street don’t understand, so it’s kinda hard to assess blame. But there’s a lot of anger and frustration, so it ends up being a witch hunt.
Ok, and here’s the rub. If you don’t like Wall Street, don’t use one of their products. Don’t have an IRA/401k/etc, because those are the very instruments created by “Wall Street”[/quote]
Everyone in charge of originating, bundling, rating, and selling the “toxic” mortgages and related derivatives, etc. should take the first hit. Either they were grossly incompetent and totally undeserving of any profits they made (least likely), or they are criminals (most likely). I’d put Alan Greenspan at the very top of the list. After that, would come every single person who got in the way of investigators/auditors/whistle-blowers who were trying to do their jobs.
You don’t actually think it was all one big “accidental” mistake, do you?
