The reason you are such a big story is that you've stolen our money!
Or that's how most of the country sees it.
First you broke just about everything you touched: mortgages, 401(k)s, the kids college accounts, and even the employers who provide paychecks-the chump change that middle-class American counts on while you live high on the hog.
Then we had to bail you out!
You think those auto executives looked bad when they appeared shocked, shocked to find that Congress didn't really appreciate their traveling in corporate jets to come and beg for their bailout?
Well no one hates Detroit as much as they hate Wall Street.
At least the Big Three makes something people need to get to work and take their kids to school and pick up the groceries.
What, exactly, do they do with a derivative?
We know that Wall Street is to New York what automakers are to Detroit and tourism is to Florida. We know that when your eye-popping paychecks plummet, the deli guy who rides the subway in from Queens to make your takeout gets hurt, and so do the waiters and bartenders and the owners of those black limos that idle at the curb and who have to make loan payments on the cars even when you cut down on your trips-or cut out the car service altogether.
Now President Barack Obama wants to cap some of your executives pay at $500,000, but strictly require such a limit only if you're doing as badly as, say, Citigroup and AIG, which would fall into the category of institutions that got "exceptional assistance" from us taxpayers (about $450 billion between them).
The limit applies only to companies that seek this much largesse in the future. And the "claw back" provisions require the return of excessive compensation only from top executives engaged in "deceptive practices" not extraordinarily stupid ones!
Your golden goose so far isn't cooked. It's only seared.
And there are hearings scheduled for this week where you WILL have to DEFEND yourselves.
Our advice to you is this:
There is really nothing to be done except try not to do anything else that is incredibly stupid. Like get photographed at a glittery charity ball, thinking that this shows commitment to public service.
Or try to justify bonuses as just compensation for long days and nights navigating through this crisis.
Crisis is when you lose your job, your health insurance and your house Mr./Mrs. Wall Street!
And unless you're planning to pilot a plane yourself and stage a miraculous landing in the Potomac, don't even think about taking a private jet to Washington.
Try Amtrak!
Source & Contributor: Marie Cocco
