Wall Street Bonuses: Just Sickening or Truly Revolting?

I wish I worked at Goldman so I could be happy about this. I don't though, so fuck 'em.

You, sir, have no grasp of how anything in the finance industry works.

I'm pretty sure your knowledge of money ends at those little machines you put a quarter in, twist, and get an awesome little sticky hand.

Dude, calm down, I agree with you here - I've been arguing this whole time that we need financial reform and faster than we're getting it now. I'm just saying the bankers aren't the only ones to blame and instead of whining about banker bonuses we should be talking about why Congress hasn't done anything to fix the system.

OF THE SOCIAL DARWINSIM INSTIGATED BY REPUBLICANS:

"The purely selfish kinds of coercion are a form of predatory behavior by the coercing party, whose aim is to narrow down the scope of other people’s actions so as to make them instrumental to its own personal interests. According to many social philosophers, this sort of predatory behavior will become the prevailing one."

Interesting how this concept can be applied to bankers and child abusers, but yes, according to the right, we should blame anybody else but the abusers, what a logic!

Some experts say the profitability of credit cards really began twenty-five years ago, when the banking industry successfully eliminated a critical restriction: the limit on the interest rate a lender can charge a borrower. Deregulation, coupled with a revolution in technology that enables the almost real-time tracking of personal financial information and the emergence of nationwide banking, has facilitated the widening availability of credit cards across the economic spectrum. But for some, the cost of credit is often far greater than it appears.

According to Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, the credit card companies are misleading consumers and making up their own rules. "These guys have figured out the best way to compete is to put a smiley face in your commercials, a low introductory rate, and hire a team of MBAs to lay traps in the fine print,"

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=frol02s4c0q7a&continuous=1

Ok, but that article also says people basically don't pay attention to their own credit card rate, and only pay the minimums each month. I mean, what do they expect to happen? It's not rocket science to understand that is a dangerous practice.

It takes two parties to create a contract - A FAIR ONE-.

In this case abuses of power are being taken place, indeed thanks to the IGNORANCE of people.

Not for this you can think this contracts are the best this society can expect as a legal system. Perhaps that is the way you think capitalism works, only corrupting minds and law.

Right - so why sign the contract if you think it is unfair? It's not like you have to get an awful credit card - there's lots of competition out there.

I agree with you that the system is broken, I agree we need to help protect people, but I also think there needs to be personal accountability. Don't expect me to cry for you if you don't read your own credit card contract, charge it to the hilt, only pay the minimums and then get into trouble.

Most of the people taking this type of contracts are not entering expecting they're going to be abused, and in legal terms this abuses are allowed.

So yes it takes more than awareness to understand and accept the abuse.

My problem is one of the parties enters the contract already planning abuse, and this is not understanding even itself as equal in the transaction. To accept this equation as a "given" in capitalistic terms, is just degrading the system as a hole in favor of a bunch of corrupt "experts".

It is really problematic to think the only way is to expect the "weak" part in the contract to be ready to fight, or just to don't take the money to begin with.

Changes ought to be made so predatory practices are stopped.

Of course it is all legal, that is way the spend millions in lobbyist and pay for most senators campaigns!

All legal, but is that morally acceptable?!

Should we accept the state of things as a permanent condition? How is that progress?

it is always about the money before doing the right thing

In a capatalist society, yes! And to expect otherwise is simply naive. I don't laud the bankers for what they did or are doing, but I'm saying that we can't expect otherwise unless we regulate. What happened to government reform on financials anyway? If this is such a big deal, wtf is Obama waiting for?

so by not being "naive" we ought to lower our heads and get sacked by a bunch of assholes?

Naivete and IGNORANCE is what they take advantage of! Agreed. But don't expect me and many to just be quiet about how immoral these suits are, and PLUUUEASE! to dismount a whole legal system fostered by eight years of corrupt republican government takes more than one year of opposing the republican congress. Of course you can blame one individual while condoning the major players in that have planned maintained and controlled this situation for years , very convenient, and presumably you are not that naive, so i would say you are participant by condoning the ones truly responsible for this. Making Obama the sacrificial sucker for the god of money is the work of the worse of this society. Turning a blind eye on the evils of the republicans and the the powers of greed while blaming those that make efforts to change this situations, what a noble enterprise.

Law has two coercive forms: the reason for acting right and the fear of punishments... Bankers don't follow either but do twist the legislation process way. It is called the political power of the bank industry. Blocking legislation and REGULATION is the work of the greedy bastards in favor of themselves only.

No, I would argue we should impose regulation to make sure we aren't taken advantage of by the banking industry. I think it would be naive to continue to do nothing and expect the bankers have learned their lesson and have been shamed into paying themselves less.

I'm not sure what your expectation is here - if you want to give Obama a pass on not pushing any financial reform more than a year after the Recession started that's fine, but how can you complain that nothing has changed among the bankers?

I'm upset that Obama hasn't made this more a priority because your reaction and opinions are exactly the kind of political and popular support he needs to push something through. Evey day we get further away from the bottom the more people forget, the less a priority it becomes, the less political will he has to get something done and the easier it is for the banking lobby to control the conversation.

one of the thousands of links you could find about this topic on how legal immorality is:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/eight/

Sorry, but what's the problem here? Pretty much every major bank except Citi has repaid TARP - not only that, but Uncle Sam made a profit on it in the form of about $1BB in dividends, not to mention the interest that was required!

you are infinitely and dangerously complacent and care little for how abuses are being made thanks to corrupt individuals. The only group you are helping are the ones doing wrong and abusing power!

HTML tag fail.

Most of us don't get bonuses for performing good jobs, so why do the folks down on Wall Street?

An individual that devotes his life to make money without taking into account how you make that money or how many people you screw up, is not somebody I would call "smart" as much a a low life, a corrupt individual.

Gaining status getting a degree, years of education that conveniently ignores justice and ethics?! too convenient and too damn hypocritical. He have ourselves a cast of self assigned priests of the cult of money!

You can do "legal" activities that are against the development of the many, maintain the status quo in favor of the very few, and feel you are just doing your job or be aware of the consequences of the abuses of power.

What is truly disturbing is to find people that not only accept this but also insult themselves to justify abuses of others. Like the kind that say:"most of us posting here are either too stupid, too racist, and too lazy" to merely justify reality.

Choosing to be looser by picking moronic winners? Yeah that is the pinnacle of human potential for some...Most of these self proclaimed looser will vote for people like BUSH or even Cheney, the more abusive the closer to a leader they would say.

GREED is the name of the disease this society suffers. It is not intrinsic to human values, it is a systematic problem. You can feel it is all doomed, or instead take action by simply demanding more responsibility from these pieces of shit in blue shirts.

But yeah all this awareness is for some "socialism"

The kind that actually makes the USA look like a third world country: a country of useful idiots for the immoral power of the right.

That an anonymous cubicle rat in a suit gets paid more than the person who put his hands into physically creating everything this person sees and uses, astounds me.

Why isn't the construction worker who built the tower, the security guard who keeps the banker safe, the cafeteria worker who feeds the banker, the babysitter who watches the banker's kid, get paid more? Were it not for them, the banker wouldn't have a job.

I highly doubt that any Goldman Sachs employee is concerned with comments about how unfair it is getting their bonuses..The truth is most of us posting here are either too stupid, too racist, and too lazy to have made the sacrifice to work at the pace that these people do..and while we sit back an complain about how the world sucks and its Obama's fault...they will be getting another nice bonus for all of that effort...Now I am really depressed...

Because you are too stupid to get these caliber of jobs and too lazy to work the 100 hours a week that the jobs entail. A standard wallstreet salary of 100 - 150k doesn't cover all the additional work, extra hours and value added.

wow, way to make it personal.

and on your first post, too.

welcome.

This makes me want to start a petition on change.org

socialism for the rich. capitalism for the poor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVDPxVy7h38&feature=PlayList&p=772064124E7829CB&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=16

That's why I voted for Obama: I was hoping for some trickle-down socialism.

The legal system is dictated by the lobbyists as direct representations of the corporate power of the moment. It is the senate we should be aware of, CALLED LEGISLATIVE POWER for the few.

"You can't take it with you."

"I'm still alive."

These guys are a bunch of lying thieves.

Hope they choke on their bonus.

they'll have a miserable life in the company of an equally evil gold digger trophy wife.

Regulation is where it is at and unless the american people demand this of their elected representatives its not going to happen, especially when wall street is lobbying hard to stop changes in regulating the securites market, etc..On the flip side if they pay back the taxpayers, which they are doing, there really is nothing you can say or do about it. they can go back to what they were doing so long as they are not breaking the law.

New York without finance industry = Detroit without the auto industry. Might be unfortunate but it's reality. This City that we all love is financed by finance.

Some people make a real lot of money, get over it. You're in the wrong city if wealth disgusts you.

why do wealth has to equate immorality!

Perhaps your the kind that thinks morality is for suckers.

It's not about the wealth. It's how and why they are getting the money, in my eyes.

Bonuses are like hush money in some of these institutions. The leaders' souls have a price tag attached to their morals and ethics. Pay them enough and they'll do anything. It's gross.

They didn't learn the lessons of the 1930s until the 1950s so what makes anyone think this generation of greedheads will ever change their stripes? They literally have to be burned out of there before they learn anything...and by then it'll be too late.

they never learn. a leopard can't change it's spots.

and they're not remorseful. isn't that what we as "society" love to hear? Remorse? no? then why is it always mentioned in criminal court?

Screw these guys. Tax them like the UK recently did, then break them the fuck up.

This isn't a Bush v. Obama or R vs. D issue. Schumer and Dodd and Clinton helped this happen as much as Gramm.

Good luck with that. UK businesses will probably just move here.

I'm waiting for the post titled: Public Employee Pensions and Benefits: Just Sickening or Truly Revolting?

Burn them down, bomb Goldman Sachs into ashes people!!!

Yeah. That'll work.

What is everyone complaining about? We love unfettered capitalism, don't we? It's the American way, isn't it?

Feudalism in America is alive and growing. Politicians are bought and paid for by the rich and powerful while the American working class is made to feel guilty asking for anything because that would be, ZOMG, Communism!

Well, let them have their money. Just put them in jail next time, and make them pay it back. It's not like there aren't other people waiting to take their jobs. It'll keep things moving.

Yeah, why should all the Wall Street people who didn't get money from the government get bonuses for making tons of money for their clients this year? I mean, god, what terrible people they must be for doing their jobs well, after NOT taking tax money. You know, the majority of the companies on Wall Street?

The bailout never should have happened. Every last one of those firms deeply deserved to go under. Would it have been fucked up? Sure, but it would have been better than the deeply entrenched corporation-government we now seem to be developing.

thankfully Pb is available.

for all. rich or poor.

Won't somebody think of the j?!

Gothamist is becoming Obamaist, aka Socialist.

sure!

Like all other media outlets that report something close to reality as oppose to fabricated rants supported in one dollar skepticism for imbeciles: that job is only handled by one entity and a myriad of barely educated zombies

Gothamist is becoming Obamaist, aka Socialist.

I don't think that word means what you think it means. No big surprise from someone named GOP - just throw out some scary words and people will believe it, right?

You're reading minds now?

please don't mistake the profits being reaped in the financial industry as capitalism. its socialism at its worst, where they get to keep the gains and spread the losses over every tax-paying american in the country.

the only americans who in their right mind would support our current financial policy are those making money off of it.

its easy to dismiss the arguments of those opposed to this system as being "socialist" or "whiny" or "jealous," but thats not addressing the underlying issue and is simply misdirection by apologists for obama, bernanke, the fed and the banksters.

Obama as socialist? We should be so lucky.

LOL, Obama is the king of capitalism.

stil to commenting about animal abuse, not government abuse bc you only make yourself look even MORE stupid.

You sound a bit jealous to me.

Has nothing to do with jealousy. What happened to right and wrong? If you steal a bag of candy from the store and convince other's that you earned it, it's wrong. If you "work the system" (aka stealing) so you can get money and make it look like you are entitled to it, it's wrong. Where do you think the money came from that saved these businesses from crumbling because of their evil wrong doings and antics? And guess what, we allowed ourselves to be hood-winked. Corrupt practices such as "working the system" need to stop. Our national security is on the line as well as global security of the free world..

Morals and ethics- where have the gone? Have they truly been replaced by dollar signs?

If you don't like the system, change it. Hopefully you get what you wish for with the "change" and not an even more flawed system.

yeah! because there is nothing better like the sweet smell of the status quo!

If I am not a stockholder in these companies I couldn't care less what kind of bonuses they give out. More than that it's none of my concern.

Well, you may not be a direct stockholder, but if you pay taxes, you are an investor. You may not believe that it's of any concern to you, but unless you are completely happy with the way the government spends its (our) money, and unless you have no complaints whatsoever about the services government provides for you, then it should be your concern.

But listen to how I go on, I'm one of those crazy people who believe that our representative democracy should represent the interests of the people, not the banks (or the insurance companies, or the pharmaceutical industry, or big oil, or..., but let me stop, you said it's none of your concern).

I second this. Guess that I'm one of those crazy people too.

"But listen to how I go on, I'm one of those crazy people who believe that our representative democracy should represent the interests of the people, not the banks (or the insurance companies, or the pharmaceutical industry, or big oil, or..., but let me stop, you said it's none of your concern)."

if you pay taxes and live in the united states its your concern. goldman, chase, et al can pay these enormous bonuses because they've gamed the treasury, congress and the fed to their benefit, and at your expense (in the form of an increasing national debt, inflation and eventually higher taxes, as well as future financial system instability).

gs and their ilk can buy paper for $0.30 and sell it to the treasury for $0.50: this is a risk to the US (that paper is ultimately worthless), for the benefit of a few. problem is most americans don't know and don't care.

Blah, Blah, Blah...and I am sure it's all George Bush's fault too.

Of course is Bush fault, specifically the GOP generous service to the banking interests, as well as any other interest promoted by lobbyist actions.

Republicans think they're "insigtiful" while being skeptic of social interest, when they're merely the bolts in the machine the serves the very few that couldn't care lass if they die or not.

yeah yeah yeah, gs deserves the bonuses because their the best and the brightest, right?

ask yourself if the us gov hadn't intervened and instituted dozens of ibank friendly legislation and policy, if they'd still be making this kind of money?

i guess thats where gs is smart - they get their people (paulson) in positions of political power where they can bend US policy to the desire of gs.

doesn't make it right though. but go ahead, just dismiss this as the jealous ramblings of communist tree-hugger.

Not, all, but in large portion, yes. Though anyone who has actually paid attention understands that corporate Democrats hold their share of the blame as well.

Lets just start a new Guillotine tax.

YES!

Put your money in a credit union or community bank.

How about post the names and addresses of the executives and upper level managmenent of some of these institutions? That should help.

u-s-a! u-s-a! u-s-a!

It's time the fat cats had a heart attack.

they will stop degrading us...