Bye Bye Banks and Wall Street

[innerSpaceman]

Don't get me wrong ... I think politicians, the fed, treasury and the streeters saw this coming five, ten, even 20 years ago. But a comment made five years ago about the soundness of the lax and deregulatory financial environment is quite different than one made earlier this year.


If John McCain hadn't said the economy is basically sound just a few weeks ago ....

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Don't get me wrong ... I think politicians, the fed, treasury and the streeters saw this coming five, ten, even 20 years ago. But a comment made five years ago about the soundness of the lax and deregulatory financial environment is quite different than one made earlier this year.

So you then think Dodd is an idiot for what he said earlier this year?

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by PanTheMan

Well... Bush needed the icing on his cluterf*ck of a presidency.

I by no means am defending Bush, but what culpability does the Democratically-controlled Congress hold in this?

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

The government should take money from the golden parachutes of the CEOs and Presidents of the failed businesses to get their bailout money.

Something I was thinking about on the drive in this morning: can anything LEGALLY be done to limit the golden parachute payouts? Are these considered employment contracts? If so, CAn they be restricted?

I am NOT saying that I want these people to get the money regardless, just a legal ramification I was wondering about.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

Something I was thinking about on the drive in this morning: can anything LEGALLY be done to limit the golden parachute payouts? Are these considered employment contracts? If so, CAn they be restricted?

If congress passes a version of the bailout plan with restrictions, then yes. Basically it would be in the form of, "If your company accepts money from the bailout fund, you will agree to these restrictions on executive compensation."

The argument in favor of those restrictions is that the executives at the companies in most need of help do not deserve to cash out on whatever compensation contracts they have seeing as they failed to do what they were contracted to do. They shouldn't be allowed to accept a bailout and then profit from it.

The argument against it is that it'll defeat the purpose of the bailout. Institutions that aren't in dire shape won't want to agree to the restrictions so they won't take the money. That leaves only the ones that are in absolute dire straits who might be willing to take it. But then taking it would be a sure sign that they're in bad shape, so people are going to be reluctant to invest in them, bailout or no, so THEY'LL be reluctant to buy into the program also.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

If congress passes a version of the bailout plan with restrictions, then yes. Basically it would be in the form of, "If your company accepts money from the bailout fund, you will agree to these restrictions on executive compensation."

Thanks for the explanation. Although I wouldn't be surprised down the road if someone who ends up not getting their golden parachute sues to get it anyways.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

So you then think Dodd is an idiot for what he said earlier this year?

Yes, that was an idiotic remark.


The rest of them are just crooks. The whole lot of 'em.




Morrigoon ... the mortgage crisis is simply the back-breaking straw. I like your solution better than simply throwing money at buying the worthless debt. But the problem is far deeper than merely the latest symptom (mortgage-backed-securities). It's been headed this way for 30 years, and it's the entire concept of free-markets-uber-alis. Homeowner relief does nothing to address that.

It's not that I want no action taken, it's that I don't think our system is capable of taking any action that would make a difference. Look at the complete failure of Congress to agree on the band-aid. How in the world would they ever accomplish healing the disease???



We.Are.Fvcked.