Most of the people at the bank don't have the ability to influence the balance sheet. While getting a cut of what you earn for the bank does create incentive to take large risks, the whole point of senior management is to protect the shareholders from these shenanigans. Senior management screwed up big time by not being mindful of risk. Now, the government has given them incentive to do it over and over again. If they lose, they'll get a bailout. If they win, they get paid from the winnings.
Nice cop out. I knew you were a piker. Now get back to work. I think your boss is coming towards your cubicle.
I don't understand why this is a difficult concept. Look, if you work for a small business and it has failed, where do you expect your salary & bonus to come from? Do you then insist that the business owner still pay you, cause you did good work and can continue to do good work? Cry to the authorities that you did a great job and it's not your fault the owner screwed up, so give me my money? Come on, get serious. Now that's just insulting, considering I don't watch the media. I just look at reality & have actual experience & knowledge to fall back on, rather than just believe the myth. Hiding behind your job is a coward's excuse. It does not matter if you were the janitor or the CEO, you are an employee of the firm. You are entitled to the consequences of the firm, just as the firm takes on full liability for your actions during your employment. The firms have failed, so no matter how great of a job you were doing, the end result is FAIL. If your department and group is so special, while everyone else sucked, then the losing operations would be scrapped with resources focused on the profit centers. Too bad that does not happen, cause it all comes as a package. (Hint hint: Most of these hot shots at the Wall Street firms are nothing without the edges which are created by the Wall Street cronies). I just don't understand you guys, you essentially say it's OK to collect salaries and bonuses from Taxpayer money, while the companies slowly continue their way toward Bankruptcy & nationalization. That's pure robbery. What is to prevent the executives from using the bailout money as their personal ATMs? Oh wait, nothing, that's why they have been doing this from day one.
When you get the mega-bucks, who cares about shareholders? You get yours as long as you are there, and if you have to take one for the Board of Directors team, they make sure to take care of you with a platinum parachute. The CEO is going to be the sacrificial lamb the B of D's hide behind anyway, so he's got to be taken good care of to fall on the sword.
No, they did not screw up, they knew exactly what they were doing, getting large bonuses from the scam. They were getting paid, bigtime. And then they play pretend as if it was all a big mistake. You can bet your ass no such mistake would have happened if they had to repay back all bonuses and take penalties even. But such is not the case, instead, they continue getting paid, albeit, not as much, but still a pretty penny. Best of all, it's someone else's money, there is plenty of it and you don't even have to earn it. The people's money.
Anaconda, you're making an excellent case for no bailout. However, once you have a bailout, you have to hold on to - at least - the worthwhile employees in the institution. Mind, I TOTALLY agree that the banks should fail and the employees should lose their jobs. That's just the way it works. What's the point of robbing taxpayers to prop up an institution with no employees or employees like the ones you get at the DMV and the post office? I'm pretty sure you're going to tell me there's no point in propping up failures, but we have done. What now?
For which firm? I only know that one CEO of a big firm declined the bonus and the automaker execs agreed to no bonus. That's it. I also remember Morgan Stanley begging for TARP money cause they did not have cash to pay compensation. That is screaming Bankruptcy. I mean, let's be serious about this. If these companies can afford to pay bonuses, why are they hitting up the TARP again?