New Tax for Banks? Andrew Ross Sorkin Weighs in on Wall Street’s Reaction

Tax ‘em ’til they squeal!

Taxing banks will only tax bank clients as the banks pass it on. It will not penalize the banks one the new structure is in pass to pass it on to consumers!!! Another failed government idea!

These so called best people are the ones that got us into this mess in the first place, let them walk. If they are so great at what they do they can find another job. These guys are greedy villians, it just goes to show just how out of touch with reality they are. They are so used to getting something for nothing. Same thing that some people say about people on welfare. Hmmm give people some milk and cheese vs billions of dollars for bankers to decorate their $250,000 bathrooms.

Point 1) If you tax a customer, the price of the service they sell will go up directly with the increase in their cost of providing that service. You tax the banks, every service the banks sell to consumers will go up in price.
Point 2) IF the government wanted to do something about bonuses and compensation they should have wrote in new regulations on banks to change how they do business. Too bad they rushed the bill through without forethought because the sky was falling.
Point 3) Though we may not like it, the bonuses not only are legal but the companies are required by contract, which they can be sued by their employee’s if they don’t provide, because it is appart of the employment contracts of many of their employee’s. I think it was the Massachusetts or Connecticut attorney general that tried to prosecute recipients of the bonuses over the summer of 2009 and found out that if they tried to prevent the companies from paying the bonuses the employees would have cause to sue them for compensation due to their contracts.
Point 4) The Obama administration wants the banks to be more involved in recovery efforts, however applying additional fees or taxes against them will just make the banks have less capital and less inclination to risk, thereby reducing how much money they want to lend or invest. Lending and investment are about risking current capital for the chance at a positive return. Lesser or no chance at a positive return = little to no investment or lending = stalled or halted recovery because of zero to negative growth.
Double-dip recession here we come.

If the banks insist on continuing to behave badly, with excesses in compensation to execs, then tax them to death, until they wise up.

Somebody needs to call these “too big to fail” bankers a WAAAAAAAAAAAAHMBULANCE.

Freeman said it best this morning: When in doubt, tax it.

I fear for our country when so many revile the one of the last economic engines, our financial system, that has sustained our standard of living for the past 5 decades. Now that union wages have send our jobs overseas, and the federal government has turned off water to our most fertile farm land in southern california so farmers cant farm, where will my children find jobs? Asia?

Bruce had it right. Tax the Bank, the Bank taxes the Customers. It’s just like the New Credit Card Customer Protection Laws (yeah right). The banks will change the rules to pay for the taxes that the customers will pay for in new fees.

So let me get this straight, Weopine – you are saying that none of this was the banks’ fault, and that everything they do is perfectly fair, they have never haphazardly raised interest rates, never gamed things to make more money in overdraft fees, never risked other people’s money etc? I have little pity either though for the people who took out loans they couldn’t afford and/or were a significant risk – and ignorance is no excuse.
You don’t know a thing about me, so you have no grounds to get personal except for the fact that you are obviously overwrought over whether bankers will get their bonus money or not. If you work for a Citi, Chase of Wells Fargo, then I am sorry that your compensation might be affected.
I own a small business in a small town myself and whenever possible, I send business to other small business owners in my community. I do business with a community bank, my auto loan is through a credit union, etc. All I am saying is that as a consumer, it is up to you who you choose to do business with, just as it is up to you who you choose to vote for, as a citizen. Chill, dude.

I do not work for any financial institution and I also run a small business. If it were not for income I derive from investments, I would be unable to survive.
I have worked in corporate america, I have worked on straight commission, salary plus commission and straight salary pay scenarios. The simple truth is that compensation plans, not business plans, drive people to take risk and be successful. Sometimes they take big risks and fail. If individuals, or we as a nation, demand to always “play it safe” and do not motivate people to take the risks that will potential lead to be reward, we loose innovation, drive and any sense of personal responsibility.
Our country, and our forefathers set up this nation to be something different, unique from it’s predecessors. We do them all a disservice and dishonor when we abandon our liberties, freedoms and choices in favor of security.
Let those who want security work for it but don’t take away or curtail those freedoms from those looking for something more.
Once we destroy that which is uniquely American, we will never be able to get it back.

Don’t tax the banks. Nationalize the banks. Place the banks into receivership. Take back all the money given back to the government. Claw back bonuses and excessive salaries from the banksters. Erase all the debt of the people (credit cards, loans, mortages, etc). Liquidate all assets left over and give them to local credit unions. Make new laws that outlaw international banks and outlaw interstate banking (let them privately issue letters-of-credit in the case of interstate or international business). All non-credit union institutions be issued State charters that expire in a fixed amount of time and a complete citizen/member review for charter renewal. Personal and criminal liability for the actions of bankers- not just corporate or civil liability. Enforce new usury laws. Eliminate the FED and let the Treasury issue money and determine monetary police.

“BREAK THESE TO BIG TO FAIL BANKS APART TIM GEITHNER NOW”!
SHOW THEM WHO IS THE REAL BOSS!
THESE BANKERS THINK THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THERE POWER GIVES THEM THE FEELING THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CANT TOUCH THEM! “BREAK THESE MAJOR BANK APART”! THE BANKERS DIDN’T EARN THE BONUSES THIS YEAR! THE MAJOR CEO’S BANKERS RULES THE COUNTRY TAKE THIS POWER FROM THEM ADD WALL STREET AND K-STREET TO THE MIX! THIS IS HOW THE ECONOMY CLASPED THIS GROUP OF PEOPLE DID IT !
“BREAK THESE MAJOR BANK APART”! THERE FEEL FOR GREED AND POWER IS IN THERE WAY OF LIFE. I PUT ALL THE MAJOR CEO’S BANKERS IN THE SAME CLASS WITH BENNIE MADOFF.
THEY WRECK OUR ECONOMY AND THE WANT THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TO REMEMBER THIS SO THEY CANT BE TOUCH BY THE LAWS OF THE LAND.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT YOU NEED TO REMIND THESE GREEDY CEO’S WHO RUNS THE COUNTRY!

There are three points that none of the TV commentators are addressing. First, most large financial institutions, including Goldman, AmEx, are now classified as banks. That means that they borrow from US at ZERO interest. Simply buying US Treasuries and using levergae gives the great returns w/o any risk. How does that justify any bonus payouts? Second, the investment banks have been over levergaed for almost 20 years. Every time there was a hickup- in the late 80s, the early 90s, the late 90s, the early 2000s, 2008 -the government bailed them out by cutting interest rates. The leverage was high in the 90s 30X, 40X and higher. everytime they crashed, we resuced them. But they never learned their lesson. Why should they. They became incrediably wealthy with little risk. Lastly, most of this crazy speculation happened when they went public and gambled with OPM (other people’s money). If we simply require these bank to have all of their wealth ties up in their own company’s stock (as was the case when they were private) adn increase the holding period to ten years, the crazyness will disapear. But since they give congress so much money, i doubt congress has the courage to do this.

Financial reforms are long overdue. And the mega-banks had to be stabilized, they are too interconnected in the financial system we are all dependent on. After they are well, they should be broken up into smaller pieces so this cannot happen again — saw a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth

The banks should have been allowed to go bust, to start with. New taxes on them, is proper and just, because they refuse to be good citizens.

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How about imposing taxes on the multi-million dollar bonuses given to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executives – those who orchestrated the global toxic asset financial meltdown.
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And throw in Barnie Franks, who oversaw Fannie Mae as the plunged off the cliff.