Feature

Wall Street’s bailout bonuses

Was $18 billion in bonus pay ‘shameful’ or fair compensation?

Wall Street gave out $18.4 billion in bonuses last year, said the Los Angeles Times in an editorial, and that “boneheaded, tone-deaf” decision came after top financial firms asked for, and got, hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to save them from their own actions. The banks justify bonuses, which average $112,000, by saying without them, they’d lose their best employees. “To which we respond: Oh, please.”

Okay, so some Wall Street executives have a “political tin ear,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. But these firms really can't afford to let their most “talented financial minds” get snapped up by rivals. President Obama called the bonuses "shameful," but scapegoating capitalists is no way to fix the economy.

Sorry, said Maureen Dowd in The New York Times, but taxpayers are the biggest shareholders in many of these financial firms now, and they've had it with these “corporate welfare queens.” Anybody who doled out big bonuses after receiving bailout money should be fired, and should pay back their ill-gotten gains.

Recommended

Jamie Dimon 2024?
Jamie Dimon on Capitol Hill
Profile

Jamie Dimon 2024?

MoviePass stages a Hollywood comeback
MoviePass illustration
Briefing

MoviePass stages a Hollywood comeback

Nvidia joins the trillion-dollar club
Nvidia
Feature

Nvidia joins the trillion-dollar club

When corporate pride goes south
Protestors and Pride merch at Target
Briefing

When corporate pride goes south

Most Popular

Is Trump's wall working?
International Border Wall Between Tecate California and Tecate Mexico.
Briefing

Is Trump's wall working?

Can Chris Christie make a comeback?
A black and white photo of Chris Christie waving
Profile

Can Chris Christie make a comeback?

YouTube to stop deleting false claims about 2020 election
The YouTube logo seen in London in 2019.
Reversing Course

YouTube to stop deleting false claims about 2020 election