After concluding a lengthy review of 419 Wall Street firms that took bailout money before pay curbs were enacted in February 2009, the Treasury Department's pay czar Kenneth Feinberg is naming the 17 most shameful today. These banks paid out $1.6 billion in cash bonuses, retention awards, stock grants and other payments to executives between late 2008 and February 2009, around the same time that Washington shoveled tax dollars at them, supposedly to keep them from foundering. It was all perfectly legal, of course.

In announcing the names of the banks, Feinberg is stopping short of identifying the names of the individuals who received the biggest payouts, so the pitchfork mob is going to have to do some detective work. Feinberg also has no authority to penalize the banks for their "ill-advised" payouts, but the announcement is an attempt to "voluntarily ensure they tighten up on pay practices during crises," ABC News reports. We're sure they'll get right on that.

Of course, bonus apologists say banks were obligated to pay them many of them out to honor contracts signed before Lehman Brothers collapsed. As Business Insider puts it, "Banks that upheld those contracts despite popular opinion that they should not demonstrated that they honor agreements with their employees." See, it was never about the money, it was about honor. Indeed, one commenter on that website gloats, "Who exactly is going to feel bad about being on this list? My company is on the list, and it will be a badge of honor for anyone who gets named." This bro clearly needs to get iced.