Barack Obama channelled popular anger against Wall Street bonuses yesterday as he announced a $117bn (£72bn) tax on the finance industry. The levy will hit about 50 institutions and be spread out over at least the next 10 years, with bigger and riskier institutions forced to pay the most, something that the President said would help to change behaviour and prevent a repeat of the credit crisis."My commitment is to recover every single dime the American people are owed," Mr Obama declared. "And my determination to achieve this goal is only heightened when I see reports of massive profits and obscene bonuses at the very firms who owe their continued existence to the American people."Ratcheting up the rhetoric against Wall Street, the President said that executives opposed to the tax were using "twisted logic" and he demanded that banks dip into their bonus pools for employees to pay the levy instead of "sticking it" to shareholders and customers.
Barack Obama channelled popular anger against Wall Street bonuses yesterday as he announced a $117bn (£72bn) tax on the finance industry.
The levy will hit about 50 institutions and be spread out over at least the next 10 years, with bigger and riskier institutions forced to pay the most, something that the President said would help to change behaviour and prevent a repeat of the credit crisis.
"My commitment is to recover every single dime the American people are owed," Mr Obama declared. "And my determination to achieve this goal is only heightened when I see reports of massive profits and obscene bonuses at the very firms who owe their continued existence to the American people."
Ratcheting up the rhetoric against Wall Street, the President said that executives opposed to the tax were using "twisted logic" and he demanded that banks dip into their bonus pools for employees to pay the levy instead of "sticking it" to shareholders and customers.
you are the media you consume.
I have to disagree with... well, with just about everything you just wrote, plus the mindset that exists to create those sentences, plus the underlying assumptions they're based on and, probably, I also disagree in ways that I haven't even contemplated yet. My mind is literally boggling at all the ways, and the depth to which, I disagree.
In fact, I'm having trouble formulating a response, never mind one that conforms to ET's standards of civility. Plus, it's hellish late/early here (as you're well aware)... I'll need to sleep on this, but... really? I mean.. REALLY?!?!?
Sorry, I'll have to revert to 'wow' again... Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes
Question: Are you in Sacramento CA? In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
apparently most of the unpaid money is from GM and other businesses who haven't turned a profit from their bailout $.
hard to know what to believe.
there is a feeling of watching him slamming the barn door after the horse has bolted though.
has he calculated he can win 2012 without the big corporations backing him, or will he keep enough onside, while throwing a minimum few under the bus to look good? ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
The losses are on bad assets that the Fed, Freddie and Fanny have either guaranteed or assumed. The $130 billion that is being discussed is for AIG and the automakers. The true losses could be half a trillion or more, so far.
The banks would do well to scream in agony, give every appearance of fighting Obama's bank tax to the death, while carefully making certain that it passes. If that is the worst that happens, they will have gotten off cheap and can keep keeping on, while the rest of us get ZIP. Kabuki theater for public consumption. As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
all for us, zip for you! ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
JPMorgan bows to pressure over pay JPMorgan Chase on Friday bowed to the public pressure to rein in bankers' pay, cutting the portion of revenues earmarked for compensation in an effort to defuse political outrage and spread the pain of the UK bonus tax among employees. (...) A day after President Barack Obama slammed the "obscene" bonuses , JPMorgan said it had set aside 33 per cent of its investment banking revenues for compensation, almost half the 2008 figure and below its 44 per cent historical average. Executives said the lower compensation figures were a direct result of the barrage of criticism over bankers' pay and the need to spread the cost of the UK bonus tax among its global staff. "In this environment, if you don't show discipline on pay, someone is going to do it for you," an insider said.
JPMorgan Chase on Friday bowed to the public pressure to rein in bankers' pay, cutting the portion of revenues earmarked for compensation in an effort to defuse political outrage and spread the pain of the UK bonus tax among employees.
(...)
A day after President Barack Obama slammed the "obscene" bonuses , JPMorgan said it had set aside 33 per cent of its investment banking revenues for compensation, almost half the 2008 figure and below its 44 per cent historical average.
Executives said the lower compensation figures were a direct result of the barrage of criticism over bankers' pay and the need to spread the cost of the UK bonus tax among its global staff.
"In this environment, if you don't show discipline on pay, someone is going to do it for you," an insider said.
So bankers are a little bit scared of politicians. Time to ante up the pressure. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
