Wall Street CEOs Run On Government Banks
The chief executive officers on Wall Street are fleecing you, America.
Sure, the CEOs of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers both received golden parachutes as their giant investment banks died last year, according to the Harvard Law School study “The Wages of Failure.”
Bear Stearns CEO James Cayne made $388 million; Lehman Brothers CEO Richard Fuld, $541 million.
And, sure, the top five executives at Bear Stearns rolled $1.4 billion from bonuses and equity sales from 2000 to 2008.
Sure, the top five executives at Lehman Brothers took $1 billion during the same time.
And not one shareholder received any compensation as their investments went south. Sue their CEOs, they should.
However, as we speak, the CEOs who “survived” last fall’s financial meltdown have done so through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (i.e. your tax money).
And now the FDIC is said to be going broke! Tell us that FDR is NOT rolling in his grave!
The Wall Street Journal reported: “The deposit insurance fund dropped by $18.6 billion during the third quarter of 2009 to negative $8.2 billion, as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. set aside $21.7 billion in provisions for additional bank failures,”
And the problem of “bad apple CEOs” in the so-called “corporate culture” ain’t going away any time soon.
That’s what CNBC business anchor Jim Cramer told NBC’s Matt Lauer last week.
Cramer said, “They got away with it, so why shouldn’t the next guy try?”
And the FDIC’s troubles look to be only starting, according to the New York Times on the FDIC’s recent industry report.
The Times said, “The number of bad loans of nearly every stripe — credit cards, mortgages, small business and commercial real estate — continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace.”
As of Nov. 21, 2009, 124 American “problem” banks have gone belly up.
The easy question is, “So what’s BHO going to do?”
Better question: What are you doing, America?
Ever two to four years, we citizens have the opportunity to “vote the bums out” if we so desire.
Isn’t it about time we turn the screws on these Wall Street CEOs and their “too-big-fail banks?”
The FDIC has it within its power to protect the banks with a temporary $500 billion fund of capital from the Treasury Department.
However, this time, shouldn’t there be more strings attached if it is allocated to cover depositors funds up to $250,000 when the problem bank goes bankrupt?
We expected the American auto industry to take a haircut.
Let’s make some wigs out of some hairy banks.
— Nathan Diebenow
