Tag: Wall Street bailout

For more on what went wrong with the economy and why it will be so difficult to fix, there's good material of every length on the web these days -- and most of it lands on one answer.

Responding yesterday to the escalating AIG bonus story, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer proposed the government take the advice of a blog commenter called "Joe Buck," who proposed in a comment thread at Salon that we retrieve through taxes, if all else failed, the millions of dollars in executive bonuses paid by the global incompetent insurance company now owned by the American people.

Andrew Ross Sorkin takes a shot at explaining why we have to pay those AIG bonuses today in The New York Times. Sorkin explains that he knows it’s not a popular view to even try to justify the bonuses — but it’s the new reality of how the business world works in post-bailout America. And it’s all far worse than you might think.

Following the Jon Stewart-Jim Cramer "Brawl Street" debate broadcast on The Daily Show Thursday night, what's your opinion of the news media's ability to reflect the events of the day? Add your thoughts below the fold.

Dubbed "Brawl Street," comedian Jon Stewart took CNBC's "Mad Money" Jim Cramer — and financial market pundits in absentia — to task for the lack of critical reporting on "dangerous and ethically dubious" Wall Street activities that led to the nation's economic crisis. Here's a sample of the March 12 episode of "The Daily Show."

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., got on the floor of the Senate this week and stated what has, after a decade-plus of Wall Street national governance, become obvious: "We should separate banking from risk." Yet the most basic true words, spoken plainly by a gray-faced senator with a comb-over and a bad tie, seems just right now when news of one economic shock after another rolls in at increasing intervals. Especially when presented in the bland manner embraced by the makers of the Democratic Policy Committee's daily videos.

On Sunday, would-be-president John McCain weighed in with a predictable do-nothing solution to the ongoing global financial catastrophe, telling Fox News the U.S. government should "make the hard decision" and let the banks simply fail. It's another policy embrace of "Fail" as a philosophy from the at-sea Republican party.

Paul Kiel at ProPublica has compiled a list of the nation's largest banks likely to go under increased scrutiny by federal bank regulators after receiving billions of dollars in TARP bailout money. Neither the feds or the banks will say which ones receive "forward-looking economic assessments." If you're like me, with a bank on the list, resist the urge to strangle your friendly local lending institution with the EKG cords dangling from your own gasping account.

Still not convinced of the need for a mortgage rescue plan? Read more about foreclosure issues in Colorado.

While conservative financial pundits and Wall Street kingpins work themselves into a frenzy over the prospect of nationalizing floundering banks, one key fact is missing from the discussion — it's already been done. President George H.W. Bush created the Resolution Trust Corp. to save failed savings and loans following the financial meltdown spurred by the Reagan recession.