Without going into a long dissertation on the flow of funds between the government, TARP, and the financial institutions that got the money, consider just this...

• The feds injected tens of millions of dollars into AIG, the big insurance company.
• AIG, after paying it's own people millions in bonuses, arguing that such compensation is necessary to retain those people in the employ of the company, proceeded to make payments on the credit default insurance policies they had underwritten, all contractual and legal obligations to make payment to the purchasers of those insurance policies.
• $13.8 billion in such payments went to Goldman Sachs, who had purchased the policies from AIG in order to limit their risk on exposure to certain sub-prime asset based exposures.
• The payments to Goldman Sachs were made during the first quarter of 2009.
• At the end of the second quarter of 2009, Goldman Sachs reported record profits of $3.4 billion.
• At the same time, Goldman Sachs announced their intention to pay bonuses to their employees that averaged $700,000 for each and every employee of the firm.

We...all of us taxpayers,,,are really generous people, aren't we? I wonder if we'll get even a single thank you note from any of the employees of Goldman Sachs who will be treated so munificently for their superb work for the firm?

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Without going into a long dissertation on the flow of funds between the government, TARP, and the financial institutions that got the money, consider just this...

• The feds injected tens of millions of dollars into AIG, the big insurance company.
• AIG, after paying it's own people millions in bonuses, arguing that such compensation is necessary to retain those people in the employ of the company, proceeded to make payments on the credit default insurance policies they had underwritten, all contractual and legal obligations to make payment to the purchasers of those insurance policies.
• $13.8 billion in such payments went to Goldman Sachs, who had purchased the policies from AIG in order to limit their risk on exposure to certain sub-prime asset based exposures.
• The payments to Goldman Sachs were made during the first quarter of 2009.
• At the end of the second quarter of 2009, Goldman Sachs reported record profits of $3.4 billion.
• At the same time, Goldman Sachs announced their intention to pay bonuses to their employees that averaged $700,000 for each and every employee of the firm.

We...all of us taxpayers,,,are really generous people, aren't we? I wonder if we'll get even a single thank you note from any of the employees of Goldman Sachs who will be treated so munificently for their superb work for the firm?

There is another side to your arguement.....

"The rhetoric of outrage has come full circle: Before, the villains were the banks that were stupid and greedy enough to fail; now the villains are those -- a small club, basically just Goldman and J.P. Morgan Chase -- that have been smart and greedy enough to succeed."

"What began as an effort to keep the financial industry from repeating its mistakes has turned into, as at other points in history, an attack on the idea of trading profit. It is no longer enough that the banks should be reformed; the opportunity to make this kind of profit should be eliminated."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...49.html?sub=AR

Always two sides to every story !

And then of course from the NY Times...

"Windfalls for Bankers, Resentments for the Rest"

"All of these companies were beneficiaries of gargantuan government bailouts, in assorted forms and varied sums, but if they assumed they’d hear bravos for prompt paybacks and quick turnarounds, they were in for a shock. At a time when so many people are struggling with foreclosures and are either unemployed or worried about losing a job, these earnings were bound to stir up some basic questions of fairness.

"And along with those questions, a rebirth, perhaps, of a type of anger that hasn’t been widespread for a while: good old class resentment."

Like, wait a sec — isn’t returning to profitability exactly what you wanted us to do? And if the nation’s circulatory system of money is beginning to flow again, isn’t that good news? Oh and by the way, we are paying you back.

It’s telling that from politicians, there’s been mostly silence.

Neither Representative Barney Frank nor Senator Chris Dodd — respectively, the Democrats who lead the House and Senate committees that handle banks — issued press releases about those earnings last week, according members of their staffs. Neither returned a call for this article. "


Class warfare and class resentment are terms we hear more and more each and every day !!!!

Class warfare and class resentment are terms we hear more and more each and every day !!!!

It is one of the major forces in progressives politics. The window of opportunity to pass progressive policies in congress is before B.Hussein Obama's popularity wanes.

It does not matter which party runs the Executive and/or the Congress,
the biggest lesson out of all of this is that "immediate legislation" which effectively doubles the national debt is thievery.

Whenever anyone says there is no time to debate and analyze, but immediate need to spend money without reflective thought, the taxpaying public gets screwed.

Does anyone really believe that these bailouts were not pre-planned by a select group of folk who would profit from them? The same holds true for any other piece of legislation with a big price tag, regardless of the type of moral clothing is wrapped around it.

Fire all 445 in the House and the 34 up for election from the Senate in 2010! In this land of 300,000,000 people, there must be 479 other people than the incumbents capable of doing the job? Considering the number of unemployed, 479 of them would be better than who holds these jobs now!