I can see, I can see when our hands our tied
I was a victim when you lied
Attack
You who smile back legislated
You who made me stupid hatred
Attack
You who used your money taking
You who tax and persecute
You who guarded all the loot
Attack
You who buried me alive
I will survive
Attack, Attack Attack
– Public Image Ltd.
Well, as you may have heard its bonus season on Wall Street and your money provided to bailout every last one of them is flying out the door. Best is the $100 million for AIG, a company which in just over a year saw $185 billion of your tax dollars go through it. I guess its hard work keeping track of all that money. BofA, which remains on the Fed’s low interest and other public largess life support is giving out $4.4 billion. As the economy tanked in 2009, it was good year on Wall Street.
Now we have two cases of looting here, the first is of the taxpayer and the second is of shareholders in public companies. The latter has become an increasing problem as boards have become window dressing and the executives look to see how much money they can squeeze out. Thorstein Veblen, an essential thinker on political economy, spoke of this developing problem, of a rogue executive bureaucracy a hundred years ago, it is now fully manifest.
Meanwhile in the real economy, as 4th quarter results come in, the economy remains flat, all the reason more for those bonuses right? Just like the reasoning for Mr. Bernanke’s re-appointment, it could be worse.
Finally, coming soon to a government near you, IMF austerity. In the past, this has been saved for the developing world, let’s see how it works with the Greeks.
cross-posted from Archein: “bonuses, government, and the economy”
Archein