Thank goodness we've got one politician who doesn't pander to populist hysteria. Unbelievable that NY politicians don't get this fundamental concept. It was NY pols who actually proposed and voted for the bonus tax last year, that should have been renamed the "Funnel millions of dollars from NYC to Washington" tax.

Like it or not, banks fund this city and state. Unless you want to see massive decreases in social services, we do (maybe unfortunately) need New York to remain the center of banking. It's fair to call for socking it to the banks, so long as you recognize the economic ramifications to this city/state.

I am so sick of hearing this drivel, especially from Bloomberg.

This country has morphed into a consumer consumption economy. Wall Street denizens found/legislated a system so that they pay a lower tax rate than the average citizen. Most of them run off to exotic locales to spend their ill-begotten gains and live out of state. Consequently, they spend little in the city and contribute less than their fair share in the way of local taxes.

Mayor Bloomberg, get it through your regal skull that New York City residents are the true cornerstone of the city's economy!

The Mayor of a town that housed a baby-grinding factory would defend it. Big deal.

If GS and company don't like the current situation, perhaps they should have been allowed to eat the shit sandwich they prepared when AIG caved. Perhaps the Fed should turn off it's printing press of free money that's fueling their current profits (and the real estate bubble before it).

Banks successfully lobbied to remove the firewall between regular banks and investment banking, and quickly proved that they couldn't be trusted by nearly bringing down the whole system on our heads. It's a free market or not. You can't be a little bit pregnant.

As far as blaming failed regulators, the revolving door between industry and government makes that point moot.

This is no surprise. Bloomberg also defends the presence of illegal aliens in NYC doing jobs that were done by NYC residents and citizens of the country. People should put their money and other accounts in community savings banks and credit unions. We also must help ourselves, the banks can't pass on fees to you if you're not one of their customers.

You wrote Bloomberg also defends the presence of illegal aliens in NYC-

The unemployment rate in minority communities is 15%+

"we should hold back [members of Congress's] salaries for a decade or so and see whether the laws they pass work out."

Bloomberg is absolutely right.

Obama continues to say that these new taxes and regs are punishment for the banks who took TARP money. Problems with this:

1. Many of those who took the money did not need it; they were forced to.

2. Most of it has been paid back, with the Fed earning a profit.

3. Do you really think the banks will just eat billions in new taxes? Yeah right. Get ready for $5 ATM fees, $20 a month just to maintain a checking account and a whole bunch of other things you and I will pay for.

How dare anyone in Washington change the rules when Bloomberg still has a lot of luxury condos to fill.

It's a misplaced agenda. Banks don't do much proprietary investing and they got into trouble over poor lending choices. In a perfect world where all the mortgages were solid, all that MBS and SIV crap would have been traded just fine with little or no losses. And because banks have paid back a lot of TARP money (except Citi) they should go their merry way but with a tighter regulatory focus. BTW, your ATM fees will still be $5 and your checking account will be $50 per month, not $20. Wave to the nice capitalists!

Bloomberg sux. That said, Obama's idea(s) all smack of pandering to the anger of the lowest economic classes. Limit the business of the only businesses actually making money and developing new markets (eg. banks) and where is the investment money to grow other businesses supposed to come from? especially since that investment money is what actually makes new jobs (unless you want a career cleaning garbage off the interstate highways on the federal dole).

This mess was caused by loose business practices, but the actual crashes were totally caused by a failure of the federal regulatory agencies and of the treasury to head off catastrophic failures (eg. Lehman). So the prevalent federal wisdom is to further strangle the flow of investment funds that would otherwise grow new jobs by overtaxing those financial agencies with well defined controls, more than adequate reserves, who didn't need or ask for a bailout (and were actually forced into accepting it) and who actually are able to be profitable without additional federal restrictions?

Wave goodbye to your childrens' chances for a better life than you had, because Mr Obama wants everyone in the US to have a job, at WalMart.

Obama sux. Bloomberg is 100% right. Did you see the stock market the last 2 days because of Obama's threat of regulations. More regulations on big banks will hurt NYC economy. All the big banks paid back their TARP funds and some like Goldman were forced to take the funding despite never needing it. I think the big problem is with the government and that it needs to be broken up. Why do we need 500 or so congressmen. Does it really take that many people to come to a decision? Couldnt 150 figure it out. That would save the government millions a year. Maybe those other congressmen can be pushed into useful jobs like street repair and cleaning instead of nothing like they currently do.

bloomberg was also against the $10 an hour wage for bronx residents.

the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

In 1967 I made the minimum wage of $1.85; that had the same purchasing power of $12.00 today. The rich are indeed getting richer and the poor are becoming poorer.

Minimum wage and most social welfare programs should be designed as a motivator, not a cushion.

A great motivator for the folks working in the Citicorp Bldg is the fear that their job might be outsourced to India.

Like France in 1789!

The commercial and investment banks are the cornerstone of NYC. When people started to get fired last year in the financial services industry remember all the people who got fired at restaurants etc because of the lack of customers? Remember the fact that tax receipts have fallen off a cliff? I don't always like Bloomy but he is spot on here. Thank god someone is fighting for NYC.

Hope you were all giving each other high fives and getting that warm fuzzy feeling inside during the press conference yesterday, caus' that's about all it's good for.

The good news is it'll never become law, it was just a little show for all the angry people in the country to feel good about sticking it to those bankers.

Nevermind that this does nothing to address the root cause of the crash. How about we talk about insurance regulation and actually get something done?

Insurers are regulated by the states...but I'm with you there.