Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

[seanm123]

Congressman Barney Frank tried to reign in compensation his tarp reform legislation and his bill isn't moving anywhere fast for the last two weeks, meanwhile Geithner and Summers and getting ready to dole out another 350 Billion perhaps this weekend.

Now we have a President angry over "shameful" bonuses, and an angry Senator who wants to cap earnings to a pitiful 400k. How in the heck are the bankers going to keep up the Co-Op on the East Side and a House in the Hamptons on $400k a year?

......................

CNN- One day after President Barack Obama ripped Wall Street executives for their "shameful" decision to hand out $18 billion in bonuses in 2008, Congress may finally have had enough.

An angry U.S. senator introduced legislation Friday to cap compensation for employees of any company that accepts federal bailout money. Under the terms of a bill introduced by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, no employee would be allowed to make more than the president of the United States.
Obama's current annual salary is $400,000.


"We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer," an enraged McCaskill said on the floor of the Senate. "They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out 18 billion dollars in bonuses."


http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/...pay/index.html

[Judas]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

I'm sure the senator was just tired after the ride in the private lobbyist jet to her multimillion dollar offices, and didn't have time to hit the private senate gym and spa before her 3 hour workday began. She may have even had to maneuver past pissy "little people" constituents trying to hassle her with their whiny complaints about crushing taxes.

Poor thing. Her outburst is completely understandable.

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

Congressman Barney Frank tried to reign in compensation his tarp reform legislation and his bill isn't moving anywhere fast for the last two weeks, meanwhile Geithner and Summer's and getting ready to dole out another 350 Billion perhaps this weekend.

Now we have a President angry over "shameful" bonuses, and an angry Senator who wants to cap earnings to a pitiful 400k. How in the heck are the bankers going to keep up the Co-Op on the East Side and a House in the Hamptons on $400k a year?

......................

CNN- One day after President Barack Obama ripped Wall Street executives for their "shameful" decision to hand out $18 billion in bonuses in 2008, Congress may finally have had enough.

An angry U.S. senator introduced legislation Friday to cap compensation for employees of any company that accepts federal bailout money. Under the terms of a bill introduced by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, no employee would be allowed to make more than the president of the United States.
Obama's current annual salary is $400,000.


"We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer," an enraged McCaskill said on the floor of the Senate. "They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out 18 billion dollars in bonuses."


http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/...pay/index.html

I, and I expect many, agree with Senator McKaskill. There should be some goddammed bitching and indignation toward Wall Street and the gangster banksters, but I doubt that anything serious to curb the bastards will in fact become law.

[BadJuju]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

Just another angry demagogue attempting to capitalize on a situation they helped to create. :rolleyes:

"They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out 18 billion dollars in bonuses."

Oh, but you can taxpayer money to fund morally bankrupt institutions when they are already overwhelmingly burdened by debt? Silly bitch.

[swgprop]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

Perhaps she's genuinely outraged. At least she's less beholden to the FIRE economy than many others - such as Barney Frank.

Top Industries - campaign contributions

Claire McCaskill

Industry	Total
Lawyers/Law Firms	$1,404,965
Women's Issues	$928,169
Retired	$778,734
Misc Business	$432,195
Democratic/Liberal	$334,848
Leadership PACs	$318,363
Real Estate	$247,783
Securities & Investment	$234,816
Health Professionals	$209,400
TV/Movies/Music	$204,895
Education	$165,359
Business Services	$146,225
Misc Finance	$141,325
Printing & Publishing	$106,952
Public Sector Unions	$105,750
Misc Issues	$97,567
Pro-Israel	$79,251
Hospitals/Nursing Homes	$77,950
Transportation Unions	$77,500
Lobbyists	$73,450

[Slimprofits]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

Just another angry demagogue attempting to capitalize on a situation they helped to create. :rolleyes:

"They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out 18 billion dollars in bonuses."

Oh, but you can taxpayer money to fund morally bankrupt institutions when they are already overwhelmingly burdened by debt? Silly bitch.

this is political theater at it's finest. Obama and company feigning outrage. On the other hand, Senator Corker's statement about bank seizures tells me the Republicans are probably feigning outrage over the stimulus bill and will allow the bad bank plan to go through.

[vanvaley1]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

I'm sure the senator was just tired after the ride in the private lobbyist jet to her multimillion dollar offices, and didn't have time to hit the private senate gym and spa before her 3 hour workday began. She may have even had to maneuver past pissy "little people" constituents trying to hassle her with their whiny complaints about crushing taxes.

Poor thing. Her outburst is completely understandable.

Well, I don't know. I couldn't get any support on another board for drawing and quartering, burning at the stake, water-boarding, or even an old fashion stoning ho-down for outrageous wall streeter et al behavior. So she seems a bit mild with her compromise.

Perhaps not as dramatic as the French at the barricades but Americans seem to be coming around to something akin to anger and disillusionment. Not as good as some of the ole Depression era songs but ain't a bad start: http://www.bornagainamercian.org/

Maybe some 'real' change is brewing...be it a tad late.

[vanvaley1]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

Well, I don't know. I couldn't get any support on another board for drawing and quartering, burning at the stake, water-boarding, or even an old fashion stoning ho-down for outrageous wall streeter et al behavior. So she seems a bit mild with her compromise.

Perhaps not as dramatic as the French at the barricades but Americans seem to be coming around to something akin to anger and disillusionment. Not as good as some of the ole Depression era songs but ain't a bad start: http://www.bornagainamercian.org/

Maybe some 'real' change is brewing...be it a tad late.

Sorry about that...have had a dyslexic problem for years: http://www.bornagainamerican.org/

[c1ue]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

Salary caps don't work.

It can be argued that the monster pay packages of CEOs is partly due to the law passed in 1993 by Clinton limiting the tax deductibility of CEO compensation.

This law said any pay over $1M was not tax deductible, but of course options don't count as 'pay'.

Well, it wasn't very long before the myriad tax benefits of exercising options and tax deductible option grants led to the monster packages.

I also have first hand experience of 'salary caps':

In one of my previous jobs, a change in the way software was sold led to the creation of multi-year time limit license agreements.

Instead of buying new software, all old software and most new software was now accessible for a per seat flat rate. Maintenance was also reduced as a %.

The net was lead salespeople in major accounts making $1M or more in a year - more than the CEOs then (this was 15 years ago).

Naturally there was an outcry - salary caps of $400K were duly passed.

The effect?

Salespeople would pack all their sales possible into 1 year because they'd get a percentage commission over quota. They would then goof off for the 2 or 3 or 4 years needed to collect the balance owed. The company couldn't fire them - because if they did then the balance would be due immediately and would generally not come at a good time.

So compensation ratios for salespeople went up on average quite a lot, but productivity went down a lot.

Salary caps are not the way to go.

A law making directors on boards liable for compensation 'errors' might be more useful, or a law making clawback up to 3 years always an option.

[tsetsefly]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

Just another angry demagogue attempting to capitalize on a situation they helped to create. :rolleyes:

"They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out 18 billion dollars in bonuses."

Oh, but you can taxpayer money to fund morally bankrupt institutions when they are already overwhelmingly burdened by debt? Silly bitch.

"They don't get it. These people are idiots."
I think most can agree with this statement ABOUT congress...

ssalary caps wont work... how well do prices and wage caps work???

[seanm123]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

"They don't get it. These people are idiots."
I think most can agree with this statement ABOUT congress...

ssalary caps wont work... how well do prices and wage caps work???

No need for wage caps, raising bank reserves to say 50% and keeping the loans on the books will do it.

[GRG55]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

Congressman Barney Frank tried to reign in compensation his tarp reform legislation and his bill isn't moving anywhere fast for the last two weeks, meanwhile Geithner and Summers and getting ready to dole out another 350 Billion perhaps this weekend.

Now we have a President angry over "shameful" bonuses, and an angry Senator who wants to cap earnings to a pitiful 400k. How in the heck are the bankers going to keep up the Co-Op on the East Side and a House in the Hamptons on $400k a year?

Barney Frank is part of the problem. He would probably be the most astonished if his bill actually got any traction and passed. It's only out there so he can claim he tried to do something and, oh-my-gosh, couldn't get anyone to support him. After relentlessly protecting the reckless Fannie and Freddie he used the same tactic and excuse.

[tsetsefly]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

while on the subject of senators one f*cker that should be tarred and feathered if he talks about lending practices of banks is Chris Dodd, that bastard was the one saying to fannie, freddie and co. IN 2008, that they where not doing enough to lend to lower income families trying to buy a house...

Even worse he was pitching for a countrywide bailout and it was later known he received "below" market rates for 2 houses..

and mroe from wikipedia:

Countrywide has also contributed a total of $21,000 to Dodd’s campaigns since 1997. Dodd has received approximately $70,000 in campaign contributions from Bank of America, which is buying Countrywide, in the last year-and-a-half before the Countrywide Financial loan scandal broke.^[34] Only Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have received more money from Bank of America than Dodd with Senator John McCain slightly trailing him at $64,000. ^[34] However, no American politician has received more contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac than Dodd's combined $133,900.^[35]
On June 20, 2008, the Heritage Foundation alleged staffers from Bank of America had drafted Dodd's housing bailout bill (FHA Housing Stabilization and Homeownership Retention Act of 2008) in March 2008, before it was introduced in the Senate.^[36] The Los Angeles Times also reported on this story on June 21.^[37]

its easy to see the problem... when government has the power to decide who wins and loses then you will always have payouts, lobbying, gifts etc.

[Penguin]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

Hmmm.

They are lucky I am not Czar for a day, they would ALL be on government pay scale until they paid back every nickel of loan WITH interest. Including bonuses, stock options, trips to Jamaica, etc.

I'm serious. And I think they should consider such a deal a good deal considering they are wards of the state. But then again I ~have~ been accused from time to time of being a hard man. :p

Will

[ax]

Re: Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

Agreed. Frank and Dodd both.