It is no secret that the banks received billions in bailout money last year. The Fed thought the country would fall apart if they did not act. Now some banks have paid off their bailout loans. The problem is that these banks are reporting record profits now. In addition, they are awarding record bonuses as well. The American people are mad.Goldman Slacks executives are apologetic about the situation. They are sorry people lost money. However they argue that current employees are not liable for past mistakes. In fact, some employees already took compensation cuts last year.
Some banks skipped executive bonuses. But the trend is executive pay is on the rise. One compromise is to provide executive pay in the form of long term stock. That way they will make decisions which benefit the company for the long term.
I do not fault GS for awarding bonuses now. If we truly did not want such nonsense to happen, there should have been additional terms tied to the bailout loans. This was just not done. Now we cannot cry over the spilled milk. Pwned.
