Saturday, January 17, 2009

Bailout financing billionaire bonuses

I just caught this article from the UKs Daily Mail today. It's from October 30, 2008 and covers a fairly simple topic - the Bailout.

Basically, it says that the Bush / Obama / Bernanke / Paulson bailout provided about $10 billion to Goldman Sachs. And Goldman gave an $11 billion in bonuses to its executives... although The Telegraph reported on December 12 that Goldman gave out $18 billion in bonuses.

And Hank Paulson left his job as CEO of Goldman to run Treasury.

And we now know that those safeguards that Dodd & Murphy bragged about were all a sham.

So from my perspective, I now see that my five elected officials in Washington (Bush, Obama, Dodd, Lieberman & Murphy) all approved of the Goldman's bonuses this year... though they all claim stupidity ignorance to the workings of the bailout. Well... I guess Bush doesn't claim anything... he's just trying to get outta Dodge as quickly as possible.

Of course, it's well-known that no one really knows where the $350 billion went. So perhaps the UKs press has it wrong... but I doubt it. And if they do have it right, then Obama should be embarrassed for demanding the additional $350 billion bailout... at the same time suggesting that we just need more transparency. I mean, just how would transparency address the issue of bailout money (our tax dollars) paying huge bonuses?

Tim White

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Remember when.....


Dodd Had Central Role In Crafting Bailout Bill



By JESSE A. HAMILTON

October 2, 2008

WASHINGTON — - He couldn't get far in his race for the presidential nomination, barely earning also-ran status. But Sen. Christopher J. Dodd is at the very center of what may be the most important piece of financial legislation the country has considered during his long political career.

For the moment — with the Senate's passage of a $700 billion economic bill Wednesday night — Dodd's name has risen near the prominence of his Senate colleagues reaching for the White House. And whether you call it a bailout or a rescue of the U.S. economy, the Connecticut senator's fingerprints are all over it.

Anonymous said...

Regarding the last post, well ,this is one investment for Goldman Sachs that really paid off


http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?id=N00000581&cycle=2008

Christopher J. Dodd (D)
Top Contributors

Bear Stearns $118,550
Goldman Sachs $105,400
American International Group $98,100

Anonymous said...

whether you call it a bailout or a rescue

Only a few people called it a "rescue," namely Bush, Dodd and their cronies who were similarly politically-savvy and financially-illiterate.

Anonymous said...

Notice the Democrats who campaigned against the Wall Street Bailout all voted to keep it running this week?

http://www.redstate.com/jeff_emanuel/2009/01/17/welcome-to-capitol-hill-please-leave-your-spines-and-principles-in-the-senate-cloakroom/

When a Democrat complains about wasteful spending, the motivations is envy, not frugality. The ol' bait-and-switch is alive and well on Capitol Hill