Closing Arguments: What Recession? More Million-Dollar Bonuses
EmailThe month ended with the Dow's strongest July in 20 years — up nearly 9 percent. But while there are signs of a rebound, the recession is not over. So it came as a surprise this week when it was revealed that the nine banks in need of the most government bailout money awarded more than 5,000 employees $1-million-plus bonuses — each. Today, an outraged House of Representatives passed a bill to prevent banks from awarding bonuses for financial risk-taking that could have severe consequences for the overall economy. So tonight, we ask: Are the bankers back to business as usual, and should the government step in? Or is this just the free market at work? Tell us what you think. You can follow "Nightline" anytime on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Nightline.
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Banks & bankers are back to business as usual. Greed on Wall Street by Wall Street will be a never ending cycle unless the government steps to control these excessive bonus’ & so called executive pay packages.
Posted by: Stephen Alhart | August 1, 2009, 12:13 am 12:13 am
These banks CEO’s need to be fired.
These banks that have taken our hard earned money should be shut down, and all of our monies returned back to US.
The taxpayer who can not get a loan from these banks even with excellent credit. And yet they can pay out these bonuses with OUR MONEY! Screw em.
Boycott them!
Posted by: Jim | August 1, 2009, 12:13 am 12:13 am
Bankers are back to business as usual. The govt needs to step in and take it back. They got themselves in trouble and still get bonuses when we have to bail them out.
Posted by: Brenda | August 1, 2009, 12:15 am 12:15 am
These banker have taken advantage of the system and I say STOP..Have they no shame? A few months ago the US goverment saved them and now they are handing out bonus like business as usual. The Feds need to steo in because they have demonstated they can’t be trusted. I am angry as hell and we as a country should not have to put up with this.
Posted by: Brian Skinner | August 1, 2009, 12:17 am 12:17 am
They definately need to give that money back!!!
Posted by: Sandi | August 1, 2009, 12:17 am 12:17 am
Back to business as usual! For once, I think the government needs to step in and put a STOP to this type of unreasonable expenditure of tax payer’s money and bank client’s money!!! This is absolutely ridiculous! The money given to the banks should have been given to us citizens – we would have put it in the bank, bought cars, bought other merchandise and no one would have had a problem!!! IMHO
Posted by: Older Reader | August 1, 2009, 12:18 am 12:18 am
I agree with the comment by Stephen Alhart. It is back to business as usual on Wall Street and I believe that it is totally ridiculous to pay these huge bonuses especially with the present dire financial situation of the economy of the U. S. Government at the present time.
Posted by: Peggy Greathouse | August 1, 2009, 12:20 am 12:20 am
Granted the bonuses to executives are a
fraction of the bailouts, but what if the banks had DONATED those bonuses to
people who lost their jobs or used that
bonus money to stave off some foreclosures? How does it make sense that people running a bankrupt company
get bonuses? In what other business do
people get bonuses for FAILURE?
People complain that major league sports
stars and rock stars are way overpaid
for their allegedly non-intellectual
talents. Yeah, really. The Jonathan
Papelbons and A-Rods of this country
or the Michael Jacksons bring income to
their teams box offices. They are very
well paid, because they earn for their
employers so much more than even their
highest compensation packages.
What do those people running failing
banks do to help their companies?
Posted by: Roberta Pliner | August 1, 2009, 12:21 am 12:21 am
It’s time to clean house again and give all those loans back to Uncle Sam. I lost my job over a year ago and I haven’t gotten my bail out, maybe I need to apply! Looks like we give money to any one that asks and I could use a few $$ about now!
Posted by: Nicky | August 1, 2009, 12:22 am 12:22 am
I want my moneyback.
I did not intend on paying a bonus to someone when I got no bonus, no raise. I want my voice heard.
Posted by: Outraged Taxpayer | August 1, 2009, 12:25 am 12:25 am
This is why bailouts are immoral.
Posted by: Huh | August 1, 2009, 12:26 am 12:26 am
How dare these self serving arrogant money changers even consider giving out these types of bonuses (even $5000) with so many of our citizens literally trying to keep their heads above water. Have they no conscience? I think not. From what we see they believe they are entitled to this. What is wrong with a government who hands out billions without asking for an accounting of it? I am afraid for the USA and what is coming out of the White House since January….just what we need…MORE government control. Hopefully, the people of this country wake up and soon.
Posted by: Pat | August 1, 2009, 12:29 am 12:29 am
Yes, the government needs to step in. Apparently these people have not learned anything and are so arrogant they still think they deserve bonuses dispite the terrible job they have been doing.
Also, we have allowed banks, and other businesses, to grow much too large. If they are too large to fail, they are too large to exist and should be broken up into smaller entities.
Posted by: Sam | August 1, 2009, 12:30 am 12:30 am
I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING !WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE ,WHEN ARE WE GOING TO WAKE UP. dO WE REMEMBER ALL THE MONEY THAT WENT TO THE BANKS BACK IN 1990 DID WE EVER GET IT BACK!NO HOW ABOUT NOW.SAME DEAL!ITS TIME TO GO BACK TO BASICS .RESTRUCTURE THE BIG BANKS MAKE THEM SMALLER ,AND HELP THE SMALL BUSINESS MAN .START MANUFACTURING AGAIN .STOP DESTROYING WHAT MADE THIS COUNTRY GREAT.
Posted by: jerry f reeman | August 1, 2009, 12:36 am 12:36 am
We all of us collectively should stop sending our hard earned money to wall street, and teach them a lesson that we are smarter than so called financial whiz (I meant greedy and crooks). By product of this will keep corporate America’s CEOs in check too, because stock price won’t go through roof and they won’t be able to steal millions in bonuses. Alternative to park our savings is treasury notes and bonds (this will keep inflation low and Chinese will own less of country).
Posted by: Ben | August 1, 2009, 12:39 am 12:39 am
Again…Lack of accountability. I think that government intervention should be the only option at this point. I was so frustrated to hear that I as a taxpayer is really funding the guy in the ferrari. Something he does not deserve. I work for a pay for performance company. If the company’s performance is down…..guess what? I dont get a bonus. I hate the fact that they are absolutely getting away with this.
Posted by: Harv | August 1, 2009, 12:59 am 12:59 am
The total disconnect between the CEO’s of Big Business and real world economics is outrageous and mind-boggling. The bankers et al are back to “business as usual” well before business is actually near recovery. Absolutely, regulation is needed to prevent out-of-control remuneration to those whose greedy misguidance of their institutions has required government bailouts to keep them afloat. The absurd position that large bonuses must be paid to retain “good” people is totally contradicted by the mammoth damage done to these institutions by the same “good” people. To argue that such disaster creators must be retained with large bonuses is ludicrous.
Posted by: M SUZANNE ROESE | August 1, 2009, 1:01 am 1:01 am
“Big-Bailed-Out-Banks” must receive an immediate government sanctioned reality check! RE-REGULATION NOW! Our government should have and now must immediately disallow CEO bonus fraud. Additionally, Congress potentiated even more bank fraud when Congress allowed credit card providers an unnecessarily lenient ten months before regulating usury, fees and other fraudulent credit card schemes. We, the citizens of this country, should not tolerate corporate abuse of United States citizens! A government of, by, and for the People? I think not!
Posted by: bebahru | August 1, 2009, 1:12 am 1:12 am
A resounding YES !!! It is “business as usual”. The governments stimulus package has been a colossal failure. still the banks hand out bonuses like there is no tomorrow. The congress and white house gave them our money and imposed restrictions, but the loans promised still dried up leaving the taxpaying consumer standing high and dry. The government plan has flopped. Meanwhile the federal regulators responsible for protecting the public from such abuses still sit on their collective arses and do NOTHING… We should keep these self-inflicted tragedies in mind when considering to assent to the massive expansion of government that President Obama and his congressional allies are seeking.
Posted by: Nachthexe | August 1, 2009, 1:55 am 1:55 am
What the heck happened to a regular paycheck? And you pay these 5000 or so people a million dollar bonus each because you’re afraid some other company will hire them away or that no one else can do what they do. I’m quite sure that there at least a couple million people that can do what they do. Besides I did not authorize those bonuses with my money. TAKE THEM DOWN.
Posted by: Joe | August 1, 2009, 2:27 am 2:27 am
Bailouts are not the answer and whose idea was that???? Answer: the Government! The real thieves are the government hacks who produce nothing, confiscate from the capitalist society, and then want to dictate the rules and regulations. They are the reason we are collectively in this mess and everything they do now only digs us a deeper hole. Don’t go along with their “blame” game. Wake up America!!!
Posted by: Bill Keenan | August 1, 2009, 2:32 am 2:32 am
This is hard to believe! More bonuses after all the outrage? What’s it going to take? C’mon Congress – get mad on our behalf and stop this nonsense. No more bonuses to anyone anytime! They can live on what they’ve got, which is megabucks more than the taxpayers they are ripping off!
Posted by: Judy | August 1, 2009, 3:23 am 3:23 am
It is tragic that the same banks who received massive taxpayer assistance are foreclosing on taxpayers. The money would have been better spent paying off their houses and letting them pay the loans off at decent interest rates. That would have ameliorated the real estate crash and, perhaps, given the banks some competition forcing them to review their practices. The lenders who deliberately misrepresented the value of the mortgages they sold should be jailed. Those who stupidly squandered depositors money should be fired. No bonuses should be paid unless the bank is earning money.
Since the FDIC insures the deposits the government should closely oversee the way banks use the money. Glass-Stegall should be reinstated, banks too big to fail should be broken up and a whole bunch of federal indictments should be handed down. Bernie Madoff isn’t the only one.
It is clear that our representatives no longer really represent us. We must be aware of what they are doing in our name and vote out those who sell their votes to special interests. It becomes more clear every time some “pol” tells us that that the poor and those who have lost their jobs because of their refusal to monitor corporate shenanigans have no right to health care, homes or food.
Personally, I bank at a credit union.
Posted by: Christie Burgess | August 1, 2009, 3:36 am 3:36 am
The CEO’s of the nine banks should be terminated. They are rewarding false reasons for payment as if they are running successful companies. These companies are operating from a position of failure.
In all of my 40 years of working I never received bonuses for failure. We earned our salaries. In “High Tech”, we got paid for “Performance” in providing a successful completion to a job. We were taught and told that we were a valued asset but that no one person was so valuable that a company could not survive without them.
The CEO’s of the banks are out of control and are not providing anything but false payoffs.
Posted by: Milt | August 1, 2009, 3:41 am 3:41 am
No bailouts should of ever been given
too the top. This never has worked.
We should of all as taxpayers been
given the money we would stimulate
the economy by paying our bills off
and putting the money were it is needed
in the economy. Instead there is greed
at the top at the expense of everyone
else.
Posted by: Ruthie Kincannon | August 1, 2009, 4:19 am 4:19 am
it’s about time! the banks need to be regulated…at least until this country gets back on solid economic footing. these CEO have abused and missued and are still getting rewarded? shameful, disgusting…criminal! we need to vote out these old men in congress that are as much to blame for taking money from lobbyists.
Posted by: ann | August 1, 2009, 4:51 am 4:51 am
PLEASE!!! Somebody stop these greedy piggies from sucking everything out of average American’s and sending the rest of the country into economic turmoil. But let’s not stop there. Let’s begin taking back our country from all the greedy, monopolizing, unscrupulous business leaders that are out lining their pockets with the average American’s hard earned dollars. Enough is enough!!!
Posted by: Joe M | August 1, 2009, 10:03 am 10:03 am
It is impossible to clearly see the current financial crisis through the lens of a corporate-owned media and a federal government saturated with lobbyists from the very banks of which we speak. That is, we are unlikely to hear the truth of what happened to the chickens if we’re only asking the wolves. The nearly 30 trillion dollars which has been siphoned out of the US economy in the last two years is gone– that much is certain. What folks don’t seem to realize is it “ain’t never comin’ back”. Please, demand an audit of the privately-held Federal Reserve via HR1207 and S604; preserve what’s left of this country before there’s literally nothing left to save.
Posted by: h5mind | August 1, 2009, 5:32 pm 5:32 pm
I’m angry. If they’re too big to fail, then break them up and let them fail. No more of this garbage.
Posted by: jan | August 2, 2009, 10:37 am 10:37 am
To all you nay sayers and fear mongerers out there (PUBS)! Wall Street,Banks, Manufacturers who sent our jobs overseas, Health insurance companies and auto manufacturers who didn’t listen to the market; they all failed us miserably. The Government hasn’t failed any of them! The government will not fail us either! Obama came with Hope. We must HOPE our representatives are doing the right thing. Fear is a lie that is given credibility! The truth will set you free! I have watched our Congress in action and they are doing their job. I have watched the right lie and cheat fact to create fear. This will backfire if you just believe in hope! Hope for our children. Hope for the future! There is a leave no trace policy regarding the environment that most environmental organizations adhere to! The republican leadership has a policy of leave all traces of deceit and it is easy to follow! What ever they say it is a lie!
Their biggest contributors are those behind the lies. (Pharmacuidical companies, Insurance companysetc.) They are working it! Greedily without accountability.
Posted by: Pablo | August 3, 2009, 12:01 pm 12:01 pm
The government had better step in and stay stepped in, permanently. These gutter-sleaze bankers haven’t learned anything. They will do nothing but steal our money over and over, if the government lets them.
The whole concept of bonuses for work is a completely flawed and totally failed approach to compensation. This should be evident to everyone by now–even to mindless idiots. The only persons still advocating bonuses are the ones who control the bonuses. They give themselves big undeserved amounts and throw crumbs or nothing at all to everyone else.
Let’s get back to honest paychecks for honest work for everyone who does honest work and get rid of bonuses altogether. Bonuses are just a convenient tool for managers to use to steal money from their companies and nothing else. This is another area where our miserably failed government needs to get up of its big, fat, lazy ### and do something.
Posted by: Proud Native American and Independent Voter | August 3, 2009, 2:49 pm 2:49 pm
It is time to quit this nonsense! These people put their pants on the same way I do!! Give me their job and I bet you I wont let that kind of wage make me super important. I would’t need a over inflated bonus for doing my work properly and if I din’t perform I would not expect to have my job, let alone a bonus.For pity sake… our congress is Stupid!! Give us health care with those bonus’s… That would be a neat way to fund it !!!
Posted by: Patricia | August 3, 2009, 6:02 pm 6:02 pm
If they’re too big to be allowed to fail they need to be broken down till they’re small enough to fail and then allowed to do so.
Posted by: jan | August 4, 2009, 1:47 pm 1:47 pm
I think that we the people are starting to wake up to the fact that the government is governed and looks out for the elite. The CEO’s who begged for this Wall Street Bailout and now have received millions and/or resigned and walked away with taxpayers millions should be brought up on RICO charges. They defrauded the government on their claims of helplessness and government intervention is essential to clean up this disaster. Anyone receive a new credit card application lately? Let’s just say America has been swindled.
Posted by: MH | August 4, 2009, 10:03 pm 10:03 pm
The financial community…Bite me!
Posted by: crackmeupp | August 6, 2009, 6:11 pm 6:11 pm
While these bonuses are being paid out, people are protesting that they oppose health care reform. Why aren’t the protesters upset over this issue? What a crazy country we live in.
Posted by: tom m | August 8, 2009, 12:22 am 12:22 am