The Prez thinks the Bankers bonuses are just like baseball salaries?

[pscot]

Charlie Pierce ain't buyin it.

The president seems to have gotten his feet tangled up again. He talked about how he doesn't necessarily "begrudge" the elephantine bonuses doled out to various Wall Street suckfish, which has not made us enthusiastic begrudgers very happy.

However, for the purposes of this ginmill along the docks of Blogistan, we should like to discuss the president's explanation for his non-begrudgery -- namely, this bit right here:

"...there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I’m shocked by that as well.”

Let's examine the case of one of the ballplayers to whom the president might have been referring. For the sake of discussion, and just for fun, let's call him "JDD." (John D. Drew, a lifetime .280 hitter who was given a $70 million contract by the Boston Red Sox). Last season, "JDD" made somewhere north of $14 million to play outfield for a team that most definitely did not make the World Series. This is not "JDD"'s fault. It's the responsibility of a team led by an acronym-happy general-manager who took a flyer, a genuine alley-OPS, on JDD a few years back. The team didn't make the World Series. Why the president should or should not be shocked by this is beyond me.

After all, all "JDD" did was play a little baseball. He neither picked my pocket nor broke my leg, as Mr. Jefferson once put it. However, the folks at Goldman Sachs and at the House Of Morgan got greedy, nearly crashed the global economy, came to the rest of us for a handout, got it, and then went right back to paying the greedy incompetents in charge almost as much in bonuses as our man "JDD" got paid in salary for all of last season, during which, I assure you, "JDD" worked harder than they did. Demagoguing the salaries paid to elite athletes is a tactic for Bob On A Car Phone, not the president of the United States, and especially not in connection with men who, if there were any justice at all, would be waiting tables at a food bank somewhere. I'd write more about this, but I've got to fasten some tea bags to my hat.

http://www.boston.com/sports/columnists/pierce/

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[mediaman007]

2. I understand the analogy. If they have a good year they earn their bonus. But

they don't do it with their own money, they use our money. From private investors to retirement funds to non-profit endowments, these bankers play fast and loose with the funds. Personally, I would like my retirement fund and my 401 K to make a little more and to have the bankers take a little less.

[sandnsea]

4. And Obama calls for more accountability

And these teabagger idiots oppose it. So what the hell do they want really?

[sandnsea]

3. You're posting teabagger shit to attack the President?

"I've got to fasten some tea bags to my hat" Did you just miss that?

Or did you just fail to connect the ideology with the distortion of Obama's intent? The entire point is that these are large amounts of money that are shocking to Main Street, but not shocking within the realm of the individuals involved. The President went on to say that the real problem is the lack of accountability when bonuses don't match performance and the need for reform so that bankers *can't* pick our pockets. Oddly enough, these same teabaggers oppose those reforms too. So why do you listen to a fucking thing they have to say?

[monmouth]

5. Thanks you for posting that so much better than I could...n/t

[pscot]

6. Self delete

:hi:

[sandnsea]

7. I'm quoting him

and responding to his stupid opinion that disregards the entire point of the President's comments. It would appear to me that Pierce is the one who should have kept his mouth shut.

[bemildred]

8. A clear admission that finance is show business.

It's all about marketing.