"Greed is Good" - WSJ

Discussion in 'Wall St. News' started by WaveStrider, Feb 9, 2009.

  1. http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/106556/Greed-Is-Good

    "But no Wall Street CEO taking federal money received a bonus in 2008, and the same was true for most of their senior colleagues."

    I don't think it's the 2008 bonuses that are such a big deal. It's more like the bonuses that were paid out over the preceding years while they were bubbling up the "profitability" of the company with ratings-shopped fake profits.

    If they gave all that money back, I don't think it would be a big stink in the news at all.

    The guy sounds like he is advocating a socialistic approach to helping companies headed by poor leadership retain good talent.

    Also, the financial companies relied on the Greenspan approach of supposedly protecting themselves (and each other) through a mechanism of self-interest. That is "The Prisoner's Dilemma" applied to banks - and sometimes both prisoners get executed in that scenario, so not sure why it is trustworthy to build an economic foundation on...