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Originally Posted by roachboy
yeah, see that last bit is a main divergence.
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I wanted to firs point out the obvious irony in Obama's position on Wall St. bonuses. When they (Congress) had the power to address the issue they failed and blame others.
Second, there is the superficial and I would suggest careless nature of his comment. First not every Wall St. firm is in need or have taken federal funds. Some have had profitable years, some managers accomplished their goals and objectives, some firms have contractual obligations with employees to pay bonuses, some bonuses are based on years/decades of service but paid in 2008, etc, etc. etc.
Third depending on what data is used Wall St. bonuses are down about 44% in 2008 compared to 2007.
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Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Cash bonuses paid to New York City employees of Wall Street firms declined 44 percent last year amid record losses in the securities industry, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reported today.
Financial firms disbursed $18.4 billion compared with $32.9 billion in 2007, DiNapoli’s office calculated, basing its estimate mainly on personal income-tax collections. While the decline represents the most ever in total dollars, the bonus pool remained the sixth-largest ever, the comptroller said in a yearly report.
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Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
Prseident Obama's comments were clearly irresponsible and lacked any insight. I think he simply further inflamed class warfare rhetoric, perhaps that was his goal.