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Politics: Another bank failure is nothing new these days — except if the bank is run by the family of a U.S. Senate candidate who profited handsomely and lent millions to a convicted felon. But then, that's the Chicago way. 'I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat-cat bankers on Wall Street," President Obama said in a recent interview with "60 Minutes." Speaking to those bankers, he said: "You guys are drawing down 10, 20 million dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone through in — in decades,...

Paul Krugman, a top columnist and liberal opinion-maker at The New York Times, sounded last week like he was tied to the tracks and saw a train coming around the bend. "We're doomed," he cried. "Oh. My. God." The melodramatic periods after each of the aforementioned words are Krugman's punctuation, conveying a picture of himself in a disastrous and rapidly developing meltdown at his keyboard. His problem was that President Obama failed to be sufficiently anti-rich, anti-Wall Street, anti-bonus and anti-banker in a recent interview with Bloomberg/BusinessWeek. Here was the interview question to Obama about the CEO bonuses coming at...

On January 21st, Lloyd Blankfein left a peculiar voicemail message on the work phones of his employees at Goldman Sachs. Fast becoming America's pre-eminent Marvel Comics supervillain, the CEO used the call to deploy his secret weapon: a pair of giant, nuclear-powered testicles. In his message, Blankfein addressed his plan to pay out gigantic year-end bonuses amid widespread controversy over Goldman's role in precipitating the global financial crisis. The bank had already set aside a tidy $16.2 billion for salaries and bonuses -- meaning that Goldman employees were each set to take home an average of $498,246, a number roughly...

When President Obama was asked last week about the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon and the $9 million bonus for Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein he responded by saying, Hmmm...that doesn't jibe with what he said last December on 60 Minutes: "I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street." And it doesn't jibe with the message delivered to banks by Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, in January of 2009: "People really hate you, and they're starting...

Barack Obama swept into the Oval Office as a human green screen. Voters projected their own hopes and dreams onto him. He had glamour, observers gushed. But glamour used to mean an actual magic spell, as my former boss Virginia Postrel wrote during the 2008 campaign. She noted fans’ mystical bond with the mysterious candidate: Obama is unusual, however. He attracts supporters who not only disagree with his stated positions but assume he does too.

I love Paul Krugman. He is the liberal that keeps on giving. My self proclaimed 'dumbest Nobel Laureate ever' comes through once again.

Ever hear someone who is tone deaf try to sing? It's cringe-inducing to listen as their voice slides up and down missing the true notes entirely. But as they massacre the tune they are shooting for, their voice remains amazingly loud. It's as if they believe by sheer volume they can convince the audience of their own delusion - that they have hit each note perfectly and should be lavishly praised for their exceptional singing prowess. Speaking of being tone deaf, President Obama has been singing a lot about Wall Street lately.

President Barack Obama and others around the White House have had plenty to say about the bonuses which executives at bailed out Wall Street firms have collected, but there are some that the president doesn't "begrudge''' -- such as the $17 million awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon or $9 million for Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Some athletes take home more pay than others, Obama says. In an interview iwith Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the president allowed that $17 million is "an extraordinary amount of money" from the perspective of Main Street. "There are some baseball players who...

In March 2009, President Obama called the AIG bonuses an "outrage."

Bailed-out insurance giant AIG last night risked another wave of public disgust at the financial industry by awarding 'outrageous' bonuses worth more than £62million to executives in London and the U.S. The payouts were sent out to staff in the same department - the financial products division - that was blamed for almost driving one of the world's largest firms out of business during the credit crunch in 2008. American taxpayers funded a £113billion bail out of AIG after the company was deemed 'too big to fail'. As President Barack Obama tries to cut his country's £1trillion budget deficit, Treasury...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (GYT'-nur) says Congress can recoup "outrageous" bonuses for AIG employees through a new bank fee in President Barack Obama's proposed budget. American International Group Inc. is set to pay out about $100 million in a fresh round of bonuses to employees. Geithner called the bonuses, which were negotiated years ago, an "outrageous failure of policy."

When you breach the sacrosanct wall between church and state, and use religion to promote policy, bad things happen. At least, that's what the left has been telling us for years. But Rev. Jim Wallis, editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine and author of "Rediscovering Values: On Wall Street, Main Street and Your Street," sees it differently. Wallis used his interpretation of religion, particularly the Bible, to play the populist card and categorize portions of the American private sector as greedy on MSNBC's Jan. 21 "Morning Joe." "These bank bonuses, I would say, are a sin of Biblical proportions," Wallis said. "But...

Goldman Sachs will top a list of Wall Street giants delivering a combined profit of almost $25bn (£15.3bn) in their full-year results out this week. The announcements will come as Goldman is considering mandating senior bankers to donate a small portion of their earnings to charity in an attempt to deflect the ensuing row expected over the size of its bonus payments. Analysts expect the bank to say on Thursday that it has produced profits of $11bn (£6.8bn). Citibank and Bank of America are both likely to deliver profits of at least $6bn, while Morgan Stanley will reveal a much...

Can we all just get along? President Obama says he's fed up with "obscene bonuses" on Wall Street. The Congress is in an uproar. And new numbers from the front page of The Wall Street Journal today are stoking this mob mentality to feverish proportions. Yet the actual metrics in the Journal story raise a key question: What’s all the screaming about? Wall Street’s total compensation simply isn’t out of control. And the pay critics, in their pious, get-tough crackdown, are only ensuring a new round of outrage when some of these banks recover. First, some key numbers (rounded up)...

But don't overlook the fact that taxpayers are making out on the bailout too. If you would know why bankers are enjoying a large and controversial deluge of annual bonuses, look no further than the monthly report of the New York State Comptroller's Office. The economy may be in the dumps, but Wall Street enjoyed record profits of $50 billion in the first nine months of last year—"nearly two and a half times the previous annual peak in 2000." "Profitability," adds the state of New York, "has soared because revenues rose while the costs of doing business—particularly interest costs—declined" (in...

Even as the Feds sanctimoniously ban Wall Street executives from receiving end-of-the-year bonuses, the government of D.C. rewarded its employees with a hefty one...to the tune of $15 million bucks. And for what? D.C. is one of the most mismanaged metro areas in the nation, squandering untold millions of dollars each year, even spending itself into oblivion during a recession. That was not enough, however, to prevent D.C. from rewarding its incompetent employees with millions in taxpayer-provided loot.

Civil servants at the Ministry of Defence have been paid £47 million in performance bonuses this year, it can be disclosed. The figure, which covers just the first seven months of the current financial year, has been revealed as the Government faces charges of failing to provide British troops with adequate support and equipment on the front line in Afghanistan. Additional bonus payments for the rest of year could take the total above the £53 million paid out to MoD officials in 2008/09.

Bailouts For Bonuses Kevin Depew Nov 06, 2009 7:55 am As the year comes to a close, Wall Street is setting up for another record year of bonuses which will be financed by bailout money. Kevin Depew debates the hot button issue on the latest Two Ways to Play.[snip]

Over the past few weeks, Max has been on France 24 warning that these big banks will announce new and huge losses . . . but only AFTER their Christmas bonus checks have been cashed. Get ready for second round of trillion dollar bailouts sometime in January/February.

The vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs has launched an astonishing defence of bumper bonuses just a year after bankers brought the world's economy to the brink of collapse. In a speech likely to recall fictional banker Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street - whose mantra 'greed is good' came to sum up the excesses of the 1980s - Lord Griffiths claimed taxpayers should 'tolerate the inequality'. And he insisted that banks should not be ashamed of rewarding staff. Lord Griffiths (left) has echoed the 'Greed is good' maxim by Gordon Gekko, played by MIchael Douglas in the film Wall Street,...