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Turning Up the Heat on Bailed-Out Banks Over Bonuses

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Turning Up the Heat on Bailed-Out Banks Over Bonuses
Description
Democratic lawmakers are joining the chorus of Americans asking how slumping banks could hand out executive bonuses during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Following a letter from Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), has opened an investigation into the matter, according to a release from his office.

In letters to the heads of nine major U.S. banks getting propped up with billions of taxpayer dollars, Waxman said he "question[s] the appropriateness of depleting the capital that taxpayers just injected into the banks through the payment of billions of dollars in bonuses, especially after one of the financial industry's worst years on record."

Those banks have spent or set aside $108 billion to pay out bonuses to top executives, Waxman said, referencing the firms' public filings.
Original URL
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/WallStreet/story?id=6130933&page=1

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  • Public Comments

    • JDP JDP
      16 months ago


      This sociopathic behavior and unrestrained greed will NOT stop until MANY who practice it (board of directors inlcuded) are sentenced to stiff fines and long jail sentences without parole. We ALL need to call and write our representatives to get laws passed BEFORE these highway robbery bonuses are doled out!
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    • JDP JDP
      16 months ago


      This sociopathic behavior and unrestrained greed will NOT stop until MANY who practice it (board of directors inlcuded) are sentenced to stiff fines and long jail sentences without parole. We ALL need to call and write our representatives to get laws passed BEFORE these highway robbery bonuses are doled out!

    • Giorgio Bertini Giorgio Bertini
      16 months ago


      Now it is time for a national and international accountability, bring responsables to pay in money and personally for the mess. It is not enough to say that they are shocked (Greenspan). Civil society need to movilize for a new and strong legislation on accountability and enforcement.

      How can they ask China, Gulf States and other developing countries, at the novenber 15 meeting, to use their reserves to cover bailouts, for a mess they didnt created, if part will just go into bonuses?

      Why Paulson and those banks dont follow the german minister claim and german banks example of not receiving any bonus, just because they are part of the problem?

      http://www.twine.com/item/11kb0lh86-135/german-minister-urges-bankers-to-give-up-bonuses-spiegel-online

      Also, have a look at this new:

      "The private German lending bank IKB has demanded hundreds of thousands of euros from four top managers it fired in 2007 after the first wave of the credit crisis brought the bank to its knees, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. It's the first call by a German financial institution for restitution from its former employees."

      http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,585981,00.html

      The banks are claiming they need the money to retain talents !!! What society needs is those "talents" (derivatives engineers) to get fired and the full restitution of past bonuses.
      Financial and Economic Global Crisis
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