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Wall Street Rakes Big Bonuses, Obama Fails to Stem Abuse

Prof. Peter Morici - 1/14/2010

Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and other big Wall Street banks are awarding multi-million dollar bonuses to the same financiers who pushed the nation to the brink of financial ruin.

President Obama voices outrage but fails to stem the abuse.

Wall Street leaders argue those bonuses were earned, much like jewel thieves refer to a big heist snatched from an impenetrable safe.

Wall Street has kept its mischief legal by salting the pockets of politicians running for Congress and President, and by making certain that key policymakers at Treasury and Federal Reserve are faithful Goldman Sachs alumni.

Those bonuses were made possible by billions in taxpayer financed TARP funds and nearly two trillion in loans from the Federal Reserve and through the FDIC.

Those funds helped Wall Street financial institutions, deemed too big to fail, survive their own misdeeds. Bankers used this cash, much obtained at near zero interest rates, not to make loans for homes and businesses but to trade derivatives, currency futures and other exotic contracts.

The fallout is a dramatic drop in the interest paid by banks for private capital too. Retirees suddenly found CDs that once paid four or five percent interest, now pay two or three percent.

Essentially, Treasury and chiefs Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke are taxing grandma to subsidize Goldman Sachs and finance huge big paydays for bankers who hatched the greatest financial calamity in 80 years.

Meanwhile Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and others continued their pay cartel salaries to everyone from top executives to the mailroom clerk.

It is not surprising that their CEOs, who get the biggest paydays, claim huge bonuses are essential for rewarding talent. When my students grade themselves, they reach self-serving conclusions too.

Sadly, Obama, Geithner and Bernanke could halt this madness but don’t.

These banks serve as primary dealers in U.S. Treasury securities—a very profitable business—and depend on Fed lines of credit to sustain business. Status as primary securities dealers and access to Fed financing could be withdrawn from banks that refuse to establish sane compensation practices going forward.

Cynically, Wall Street has contributed mightily to the campaigns of Senate and House committee members who make the rules and President Obama’s election campaign.

Goldman Sachs and others paid Obama’s senior economic advisor Lawrence Summers millions in speaking and consulting fees the year between being fired as President of Harvard and joining the Obama Administration.

Americans should expect better but won’t get it as long as Barack Obama has the audacity to hope voters will look the other way.