Wall Street bailout

guardian.co.uk — One might think the financial executives who brought the world to the brink of financial ruin should be finding coal in their stockings this Christmas. But don't be concerned about them. The Associated Press reports that last year, $1.6bn in bonus payouts went into the pockets of top executives of more than a hundred banks and companies that later received bail-out funds from the US government.

Do they deserve such lavish compensation after savaging their balance sheets and precipitating a worldwide financial crisis? Aren't these the guys who go us into this mess in the first place? Are banks rewarding executives for bringing their companies and the world's financial system to the brink of ruin? Or were these big bonuses legitimately earned?

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ipsnews.net — The real question to ask about the global financial crisis is whether ‘‘it will go deep enough for the big economies to realize that the market should be controlled more. The philosophy of laissez-faire simply does not work’’.

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guardian.co.uk — The U.S. bailout amounts to a no-strings-attached, taxpayer-funded windfall for big business. Brace yourself for a final, frantic stripping of public wealth as the Bush regime goes out the door.

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thenation.com — Who rigged Wall Street? The financial crisis that has swept away great wealth and important banking firms was not an accident of nature. The ingredients for disaster were engineered by human architects seeking greater fortunes and authorized by political actors in both parties. The economy will not be truly healed until the causes are identified and the financial system is reconstructed on sound public principles. The names of key players in both parties must be identified, not for vengeance but because many of them still exercise enormous influence and hope to supervise the repair work, protecting their interests and papering over their past errors.

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progressive.org — Too late we are learning that reliance on the free market can be very costly. While there is an understandable urge to get back at the CEOs who profited immensely, we would be better off to lay the blame on the free market itself and move to correct the underlying problem.

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sojo.net — After three decades of “concentrate the wealth,” we could really use some “spreading the wealth.” But the conversation about “spreading the wealth” goes to the heart of several ethical questions: What kind of society are we becoming? How much inequality can we handle? And have we completely forgotten the lessons of the last 70 years?

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alternet.org — Markets are volatile and trending down while banks are still not lending despite frequent projections of massive unemployment and stagflation.

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alternet.org — After all, the average autoworker only makes $56,650 a year, who do they think they are?

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nytimes.com — When they’re using taxpayer-provided capital, as they are now, Congress and the public have every right to require that the money be used to benefit the public directly, even if doing so crimps the banks’ profits. An even bigger problem is that the bailout was sold as a way to spur loans. If that never was — or no longer is — the primary aim, Congress and the public need to know that.

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