The headlines trumpet the increase in Wall Street bonuses in 2009 — they were up 17 percent over 2008, a number that the New York State comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, calls a “bitter pill” for American taxpayers (if not for New York’s increasingly stretched coffers). Did bankers learn nothing? More…
The Swiss bank UBS — last seen by The New York Times supposedly donating to Republicans to avoid regulation — is doing something more in line with President Obama’s calls to limit executive bonuses when companies fare poorly. UBS, which posted a $2.56 billion loss in 2009, is More…
In an interview with Business Week, Obama said that he didn’t “begrudge” J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon or Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein their bonuses for 2009, which amounted to $17 million and $9 million in stocks. While this has spurred outrage and unfavorable comparisons to More…
President Obama called on Wall Street today to stop fighting financial regulation and to instead embrace reform, Bloomberg reported. Speaking at Federal Hall in New York City on the first anniversary of the fall of Lehman Brothers, Obama used plain language to explain to all the financial wizards More…
Just how much did top AIG executives pocket last year in bonuses? Politico reports the total awards paid out were four times higher than previously reported, based on new responses from AIG to queries by Rep. Elijah Commings (D-Md.).
AIG now says it paid out more than $454 million
Just a few weeks after Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.) requested information from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner about White House plans to sidestep executive pay limits for bailed out firms (information that still hasn’t been provided), Towns is asking Geithner about his role in Bank of America’s reportedly shady More…
Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said he opposed the 90 percent tax on AIG bonuses that passed the House. “I don’t support bills of attainder,” he said, to loud applause. He said he opposed the idea of controlling the salaries and bonuses of TARP-taking executives, focusing More…
Reading the resignation letter from the former AIG executive who had nothing to do with credit default swaps but has been vilified regardless, you see the other side of the story, a way to feel some sympathy for top financial executives caught in the same crisis that’s More…
This resignation letter in The New York Times today from an AIG executive in the financial products unit explaining the bonus controversy from his point of view probably will be flying around the blogosphere today. In the letter to AIG CEO Edward Liddy, the executive, Jake DeSantis, says it’s not More…
For those who’ve been wondering whether Congress can really just vent its anger at those $165 million in AIG bonuses by levying a 90 percent tax on the bonuses of all executives who receive bailout money, the answer is: probably, yes.
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