U.S. Government's Wimpiness With Wall Street Hits A New High

[girl gone mad]

U.S. Government's Wimpiness With Wall Street Hits A New High
Henry Blodget, http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-obama-administrations-wimpiness-with-wall-street-hits-a-new-high-2009-12">The Business Insider

Perception is reality.

So it doesn't matter what really happened when pay czar Kenneth Feinberg agreed to exempt a bunch of AIG executives from pay caps because they whined and threatened to quit over them.

This decision just looks like yet another wimpy, lame move from a government whose policies with respect to Wall Street have defined wimpy and lame.

Ever since the waning years of the Bush administration, when Washington "service" became just another rung on the Wall Street career ladder, our government has gone out of its way to protect the interests of its once and future employer.

• Idiot bondholders--the folks who provided the money necessary to fund our debt binge--have been rescued to the tune of 100 cents on the dollar
  
  
• Massive, incompetent financial firms have been bailed out and nursed along
  
  
• Counterparties ready to take a major haircut on CDS contracts have been made completely whole
  
  
• Regulators have defended their actions by saying they "lacked the necessary legal authority"--as if the lender of last resort needs legal "authority" (Warren Buffett didn't have any "authority," and he cut himself much better deals than the US taxpayer got).
  
  
• And so on...

And now, on the heels of outrage about record Wall Street bonuses in the face of 10% unemployment, Obama's vaunted pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, has revealed himself to be nothing more than a puppet:

WE'RE GOING TO CAP YOUR OUTRAGEOUS PAY!!! WE'RE GOING TO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T USE TAXPAYER BAILOUT MONEY TO PAY YOURSELVES HUGE BONUSES!!!*

*Unless you complain, in which case we'll just forget the whole thing.

[clear eye]

1. Kick. n/t

[valerief]

2. I guess the US govt IS Wall St. nt

[Arctic Dave]

3. Wimpy and Lame. I think we will hear those words a lot the next three years.

[donco6]

4. Was there ever any doubt that's what would happen?

I didn't have any.

[MannyGoldstein]

5. Whew. Could've Cost Rahm His Golden Parachute.

Larry and Timmy, too.