Administration to issue new Wall Street pay curbs

WASHINGTON (AP) — An up-and-coming Wall Street executive might want to hold off on buying that condo in Aspen. The Obama administration is ready to issue broad new guidelines that would rein in pay at financial institutions.

Eager to remove incentives that they say contributed to last year’s financial crisis, President Obama’s economic team plans to unfurl broad executive pay principles, possibly as early as Wednesday, that put a premium on long-term performance over short-term gain.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke want to give the Fed, which regulates banks, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees the financial markets, greater powers to guide compensation practices on Wall Street and beyond.

In anticipation of the new guidelines, Geithner scheduled a private meeting Wednesday with SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro, Federal Reserve Governor Dan Tarullo and executive pay experts to discuss compensation policies.

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Administration to issue new Wall Street pay curbs

Karl Marx is dancing a jig in hell. Lenin is turning somersaults. They finally have exactly what communism and Marxism have always wanted, they have their man in the White House.

I am not a fan of ANY business executive being paid ANY type of bonus for a business that is failing, that is the most ridiculous action I have ever seen or heard of, to reward some idiot for doing a BAD job is unacceptable. But it’s the responsibility of the business, the shareholders, the public itself to regulate the actions of business, it is NOT the job of the federal government!

Paying an executive bonus to an individual that has failed may be totally unscrupulous but to the best of my knowledge, it is NOT illegal, it’s just called BAD BUSINESS. But in a FREE NATION, should business not be entitled to conduct their affairs in any manner the market will sustain, as long as those affairs are conducted legally? Isn’t that what capitalism is all about? Free trade and the ability to make money or fail in trying?

If there is going to be any federal oversight and regulation it doesn’t need to be on businesses in general, but if a business was going bankrupt and was bailed out by federal funds, taxpayer dollars, then, and only then, should the Fed have ANY say in the salary or bonus structure of that particular business.

And as I have said in the past, the bailouts, started by George W. Bush, are the most unbelievable waste of taxpayer dollars imaginable. If a business is going bankrupt because they engaged in bad business practices, let them go bankrupt. That’s what Chapter 11 reorganization is for. They can reorganize and re-emerge, hopefully see the err of their ways and once again become a viable and successful business.

The Federal government has no idea of the damage they have caused by conducting their own BAD BUSINESS. The bailout of Chrysler and GM for example. GM is going to require many more BILLIONS of our tax dollars to even hope to remain solvent. At this time GM appears to be a black hole, sucking up ALL the resources it can and giving nothing in return. And yet we, the taxpayer, are funding GM, by proxy, through our elected officials.

So, wouldn’t the logical conclusion be, we are no longer a FREE nation?

Are we now truly that socialist/Marxist demon that many of us have preached against for a very long time now? I tried to point a lot of this out well before Barack Hussein Obama came on the scene. I tried to point out that we were becoming a socialized nation even before the 1st round of BUSH bailouts occurred. I accused my state Senators, Cornyn and Hutchison, of being nothing more than socialist shills after they BOTH voted FOR the Bush bailouts.

When it comes time for history to define the Socialization of America, Barack Hussein Obama will not be looked upon as the founder of the feast. For many years American presidents and legislatures have steadily moved this nation towards Marxism and One World Government.

Obama merely gets the honor of delivering the coup de grace.

AP study finds $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs

Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals.

The rewards came even at banks where poor results last year foretold the economic crisis that sent them to Washington for a government rescue. Some trimmed their executive compensation due to lagging bank performance, but still forked over multimillion-dollar executive pay packages.

Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found.

The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines.

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AP study finds $1.6B went to bailed-out bank execs

This is the type of thing that MUST be stopped if this nation is ever to recover. I am not at all against a person being paid bonuses, even very large bonuses, but those bonuses must be earned. Earned by giving a stellar performance and by motivating those under your supervision to give an equally stellar performance.

If your business is failing, if it’s not performing at a profitable level, if it’s not making money for it’s owners and/or stock holders, WHY in the hell should anyone connected to the management OF that business get anything other than a motivational kick in the ass?

Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services committee and a long-standing critic of executive largesse, said the bonuses tallied by the AP review amount to a bribe “to get them to do the jobs for which they are well paid in the first place.

As an example of how bad I feel this type of thing is, and how far out of control the finance people of this nation are, I agree with Rep. Frank 100%. I will take this one step further than Rep. Frank did however. We should not only stop paying huge bonuses for non-performance, executive salaries need to be cut drastically for non-performance as well.

Nothing motivates more than money for a business executive. Take it away from him and see just how fast he/she gets back down to SERIOUS, well managed and profitable business.

I have long believed that the power of the dollar is mighty, and it can, or the LACK OF can, motivate the masses to produce more efficiently. Penalize the executives, put them in the *poor house* and lets see if business in this nation doesn’t do a swift 180° turnaround!

AIG struggles to survive financial tsunami

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Insurer American International Group struggled for survival a day after a financial tsunami overtook investment bank Lehman and forced the sale of rival Merrill Lynch in the biggest financial industry shake-up since the Great Depression.

AIG’s struggles followed the failure of frantic attempts to find a rescuer for investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, and Merrill Lynch & Co’s agreement to be taken over by Bank of America Corp.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to review options for AIG, which has lost some 90 percent of its value so far this year, a person familiar with the situation said on Monday.

Fearing a meltdown on Wall Street, the U.S. presidential candidates sparred Monday over who could best restore financial health, with John McCain pledging reform and Barack Obama saying hands-off Republican policies were the problem.

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AIG struggles to survive financial tsunami

I have been watching the ebb and flow of the market for quite some time now. And I haven’t been very happy with the return I am seeing on my investments.

Today the market went on a panic march based on the near certain demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings and Merrill Lynch. The problem for me is, MY money is tied up in AIG through my wealth management broker. They are his investment of choice, and have, traditionally, returned a nice profit to the investor.

I don’t blame my investment guy, he has his money tied up in the same money markets, but there have been some terribly shady dealings on Wall St. and the recent bust in the mortgage market, combined with the hysterics of oil investments during the recent hurricanes, has greatly contributed to a highly volatile market that is on the verge of doing an *Enron* to everyone that has money tied up in it.

The only bright side to this is the drop in oil prices, as go oil therefore goes the market, and prices are on the way down. If that trend holds it’s bound to give some relief to the financial markets.

I certainly hope it does, many folks are living week to week and have to budget closely. Many are in the same situation I am in, with a fixed retirement income, the luxury in life come from our investments and their returns, not to mention the fact that these investments are the backup for many retirement funds. I can’t rely on the federal government to send me my check every month, not 100% rely on it, just as the others today can’t rely on Social Security as a viable and survivable income either.

It’s going to get bumpy folks, the politicians are pointing fingers, that’s never a good sign. But politics didn’t cause this, unscrupulous business did. Obama is a fool, he is saying “hands-off Republican policies are the problem”, and that only reinforces my belief that we do NOT need so-called leadership from the Dems. I want the government to keep their hands OFF of my money!