Yeah, this is going to end well.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said. [...]The administration has been considering increased oversight of executive pay for some time, but the issue was heightened in recent days as public fury over bonuses spilled into the regulatory effort.
Comment by qwfwq on 3/21 @ 6:43 pm #
Fascism.
Comment by Sdferr on 3/21 @ 6:50 pm #
Wage and price controls don’t lead to enduring eternal love? Who knew?
Comment by Jeffersonian on 3/21 @ 6:50 pm #
No sane man would let these imbeciles run a lemonade stand.
Comment by cynn on 3/21 @ 7:17 pm #
Holy shit, no way. Even though I approve of the government exercising oversight of the companies where we taxpayers now have a controlling interest, this is an absurd overreach. WTF? Let the profitable and successful companies do their thing, the way they manage it.
Comment by Sdferr on 3/21 @ 7:25 pm #
Can’t have that cynn. Those people don’t know the proper levels at which to set prices for fairness. Whereas, our President surely does. Cause he said so.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 3/21 @ 7:26 pm #
Should have thought of that before you voted for the Communist, cynn.
Comment by router on 3/21 @ 7:27 pm #
ask wells fargo loser
Comment by Vermont Neighbor on 3/21 @ 7:31 pm #
HOLLYWOOD, Ca – President Obama today levied an historic ‘fairness for all’ doctrine to ensure that guest workers and little people are treated equally to slimy, overpaid corporate big guns.
Barry, as he’s known to his bowling buddies, announced plans to work evenings and weekends from the Lincoln Bedroom to assess and correct paychecks of Americans who earn $500,000 or more.
Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Halle Berry and Oprah Winfrey will be the first celebrities to sign on in support of the the president’s radical plan. Stars have agreed to drop their current per-pic salaries from the $15-20 Million range to a more modest $500,00 per day. Each high-income liberal sponsor will receive unlimited visits to the White House as well as an invitation to the first annual ‘Great Patriots’ dinner scheduled for April 15th and hosted by the Obamas. Gift bags for the stars will be provided by Castro’s of Hollywood.
“With Americans shocked at the amount of CEO bonus money which I recently signed into legislation, it’s time to baffle and confuse with another series of odd headlines for our nation’s great newspapers. I am working around the clock to implement George Soros’ progressive ideas for the new United State of America, and to further our march toward wealth confiscation in due order.”
Comment by Stephen M on 3/21 @ 7:35 pm #
Isn’t Alec Baldwin incorporated?
Comment by Mr. Pink on 3/21 @ 7:37 pm #
Hahahahhahahahahhahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahaa. I am laughing because I have read that “fundamentally flawed” document I know as the Constitution and I do not remember seeing this in there. If someone can show me where this is I would love to see it.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 3/21 @ 7:41 pm #
Darleen considering that this so called “crisis” was actually put in legislation by people in the Obama administration you might want to change the title to “Never let a manufactured crisis go to waste”. Totally IMHO with regards to the original intent of the artist however.
Comment by Jeffersonian on 3/21 @ 7:42 pm #
And, at the other end of the spectrum, we have Obama and the Democrats in Congress about to bring up EFCA, aka “card check” for passage. The thing is, the card check provision isn’t even the scariest part of the bill. If union thugs do manage to arm-twist enough workers at a business to “go union,” and the company’s management and the union can’t come to terms in 90 days, the federal government gets to parachute in and impose wages, work rules, etc. until they do.
And yes, kiddies, this is fascism.
Comment by Sdferr on 3/21 @ 7:49 pm #
Other companies? What “other” companies?
Oh, those other companies.
Comment by cynn on 3/21 @ 7:54 pm #
Don’t talk about Wells Fargo and call me a loser. You know nothing. Router: a simple part in a complex machine.
Comment by Darleen on 3/21 @ 8:02 pm #
Sdferr
And why stop with “publicly traded companies”? I mean, if the government has “the right” to cancel contracts at will, certainly even privately held companies with say, over 10 employees, should be subject to Federal Fairness Oversight.
For The Children!
Comment by router on 3/21 @ 8:02 pm #
fuck you cynn
Comment by libocrat on 3/21 @ 8:04 pm #
Even the most astute people here don’t seem to get it. Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Biden, Dodd, et al don’t give a fux what you think. They will do as they please and continue to do so. You can’t stop them and they are consolidating power. Being angry at Dodd is a day late and couple Trillion dollars short. Electing imbeciles like Big Ears Dimwit have SEVERE consequences.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 3/21 @ 8:06 pm #
17
Agreed. HT to the 53%
Comment by Great Mencken's Ghost! on 3/21 @ 8:12 pm #
#4 – Cynn — Back in the 90’s the feds took over the Mustang Ranch cat house in Nevada for taxes. By law, they were required to keep the business running.
They. Failed. They ran a brother out of business. In Nevada. Harry Reid’s home state.
The government could not sell poontang and likker. You think they can handle selling stocks and derivatives?
Comment by Emily Nelson on 3/21 @ 8:14 pm #
Price Controls worked So Well in the 70’s/ not! Remember stagflation?
Comment by Kirk Lazarus on 3/21 @ 8:38 pm #
But there’s a flaw in this reasoning. The government, through its actions restricting the manner in which these businesses could function (CRA) contributed to the crisis from which the companies required a bailout. Further, the government’s power to give bailout funds to competing businesses would place those who were able to refuse the bailout at a disadvantage, had they even been allowed to do so.
I know that arguing by analogy is flawed, but work with me here…
Imagine a drunk driver ran into your business, causing great damage. You had to shut down operations, and have lost a lot of business. Their insurance company has settled the damage claim, and you are in the midst of rebuilding your business from the damage. Now the insurance company decides that because you took money from them, they get to tell you how to run your business. They insist on naming a new board of directors to control your company.
Does that seem fair?
Comment by stormy on 3/21 @ 8:50 pm #
Darleen,
When Rahm said that, he was referring to the oil crisis of the late 1970’s. When Hillary said that, she was referring to foriegn relations.
When George W. Bush did it, but didn’t explain that that was what he was doing after 9/11, more than 4000 of our people died and who knows how many civies.
Unfortunately, the middle east is much more difficult today than it was yesterday, thanks to one you might ally with.
You guys just don’t get it. I would wager most Americans do. Bush led us into a war that is still ongoing — based on the idea of taking advantage of a crisis.
I don’t think you are going to turn that ship around anytime soon.
–stormy
Comment by Mr. Pink on 3/21 @ 8:58 pm #
Hey stormy, the great big O! is continueing said war until the end of his first term. Did you notice how the anniversary of the Iraq war just passed with huge anti war rallies just like when Bush was in office? Oh wait that didn’t happen, you and yours are the hugest fuckin hypocrits around. Obama is Bush 3 love it while you can.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 3/21 @ 8:59 pm #
Stormy now that you voted for a warmonger do us the favor of enlisting please. Really I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
Comment by stormy on 3/21 @ 9:05 pm #
Unoriginal named guy, well, yes I noticed and secondly I know that the very thing you would want is a messy withdrawal from Iraq, just to blame it on the Obama Administration.
Unoriginal named guy, I didn’t vote for a warmonger.
But instead of trying to deflect, could you or Darleen explain how going into Iraq was letting a crisis go to waste?
Comment by hogtrashhd on 3/21 @ 9:08 pm #
Why wait? IMPEACH all the left wing fascists NOW.. and I’m talking right and left. It’s just a matter of time before it happens.. get the ball rolling now.. before this country is totally destroyed.
Comment by Ag80 on 3/21 @ 9:13 pm #
Stormy said:
Unoriginal named guy, well, yes I noticed and secondly I know that the very thing you would want is a messy withdrawal from Iraq, just to blame it on the Obama Administration.
Unoriginal named guy, I didn’t vote for a warmonger.
But instead of trying to deflect, could you or Darleen explain how going into Iraq was letting a crisis go to waste?
Stormy, I mean this sincerely: What?
Comment by stormy on 3/21 @ 9:14 pm #
hogtrashhd, your’re drunk, right?
Still waiting on an answer to this:
“Could you or Darleen explain how going into Iraq was letting a crisis go to waste?”
ANSWER!
Comment by SarahW on 3/21 @ 9:15 pm #
“I know that the very thing you would want is a messy withdrawal from Iraq, just to blame it on the Obama Administration.” I think this is what you wished for Bush. I don’t think any decent American would prefer an incompetent president deciding on a disastrous withdrawal. But for some reason you fought for a messy withdrawal when there weren’t skittles in the equation.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 3/21 @ 9:17 pm #
Unoriginal named guy, I didn’t vote for a warmonger.
Uh could have fooled me. He is ordering 17 thousand more troop to Afghan while keeping the same troop levels “Bush’s” generals set in Iraq, but hey WTF do I know. I am just the guy that is still under contract. We need you in uniform to help us though, because I do remember people making a big deal out of the last Prez joining the NG to supposedly “avoid” service.
Comment by Akatsukami on 3/21 @ 9:18 pm #
Of course not, stormy. Because it wasn’t.
Comment by Mr. Pink on 3/21 @ 9:20 pm #
I love how lefties nowdays have to invoke the name of Bush in any conversation over something Obama does. This is a really endearing trait.
Comment by geoffb on 3/21 @ 9:22 pm #
Must be an important subject. Getting some brand new “Look Bunnies!!!” trolls.
Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, Frank, they are arsonists. They torched your home. Now that it is burning they will charge you to put it out. Charge you to live in their garage while they rebuild your home. Charge you rent on the rebuilt home you once owned outright. Worst of all they rebuilt it as a prison, where you will live forever.
Fuck that!
2010,
Remove, the incumbents.
Repeal, all the socialist legislation.
Repair, relations with our freedom loving allies.
Revive, the free market economy (see #2 above).
Comment by Mr. Pink on 3/21 @ 9:22 pm #
31
As a slight aside to what you say the comment that a radio talk show host made, “I hope Obama fails”, could be aplied to the surge he opposed which has us at 20 combat deaths in the last 2 months. So all us people that served are very glad he failed on that account.
Comment by Ag80 on 3/21 @ 9:23 pm #
Hey, he said: ANSWER!
I say: MAKE SENSE!
Comment by Mr. Pink on 3/21 @ 9:28 pm #
I say: Talk about Obama and not how much you hate Bush.
Comment by The Sanity Inspector on 3/21 @ 9:38 pm #
Are you sitting there having a partisan thought while breathing government air?
Comment by stormy on 3/21 @ 9:45 pm #
“I think this is what you wished for Bush”
Wrong.
“He is ordering 17 thousand more troop to Afghan ”
Oh dear, Obama is addressing the root cause.
What’s the title of this blog?
“Look Bunnies!!!†trolls
Darleen has a lot of gaul posting at all.
But carry on.
That’s cute.
Comment by Darleen on 3/21 @ 9:46 pm #
stormy
You might look to that “PROVIDE for the common defense” thing. But then, you might be one of those people who felt Amerikkka got what it deserved on 9/11 and doing anything more than grovel before The World and begging forgiveness is Teh Imperialism.
Now, if you had actually paid attention during the last 8 years, it was the Democrats that decided to use the crisis of Islamo-nazis to get President Bush to not pay as much attention to the domestic issues. There wasn’t a sob-sister welfare package out of Uncle Teddy and ilk that didn’t get GW’s signature. Of course, GW’s doubling of the VA budget, huge expanse of Fed’s role in education, the unprecedent amounts of foreign aid that went to Africa to fight AIDS and support micro-businesses … not one tittle of acknowledgment from the Howard [Rethuglicans want to starve children and kill the elderly] Dean wing of the Democrat party.
Comment by Darleen on 3/21 @ 9:47 pm #
Mr. Pink @ #18
Here’s a bumper sticker you might like.
Comment by Darleen on 3/21 @ 9:51 pm #
Darleen has a lot of gaul posting at all.
Sorry, I’ve only visited France.
Is that you, Chips? Posting from Texas?
Comment by Joe on 3/21 @ 9:59 pm #
Torture, seems fiting somehow given the tone today…
Comment by Ag80 on 3/21 @ 10:01 pm #
Well, Darleen beat me to the punch. Nonetheless, what is the point of engaging a troll with talking points coming from TPM and Kos anyway?
Comment by phreshone on 3/21 @ 10:01 pm #
Let’s hope that Chris Dodd will follow his father’s footsteps completely…
Senator Thomas Dodd, CT…. CONVICTED
Comment by happyfeet on 3/21 @ 10:02 pm #
bonuses are un-American. Just give me gas for my ford keep me truckin for the Lord I think. For reals I just want to do what Barack says. It’s better that way.
Comment by Rusty on 3/21 @ 10:28 pm #
So. Stormy. Wage and price controls are good? I’m having trouble keeping up with the meme.
Comment by Abe Froman on 3/21 @ 10:46 pm #
“Oh dear, Obama is addressing the root cause.”
There’s that left-o-licious logic that we wuv. And here I thought the root cause was having troops in the middle east, that is if Bin Laden’s opinion matters. You shouldn’t be afraid to stray from teh narrative and dip your toes in reality’s kiddie pool.
Comment by B Moe on 3/22 @ 12:18 am #
9/11 wasn’t a crisis, it was an attack on our country. Was Pearl Harbor a crisis? Was FDR declaring war on Japan taking advantage of a crisis?
Comment by B Moe on 3/22 @ 12:21 am #
The thing I would really like to know: how is capping executive pay going to fix all the problems on Wall Street?
Comment by Sdferr on 3/22 @ 12:24 am #
Same way raising Cap gains tax fixes the revenue raising problem probably, B Moe, for the
childrenfairness.Comment by B Moe on 3/22 @ 12:26 am #
I mean, if you are really concerned with all the greed and shit, shouldn’t you be capping how much the shareholders can get?
Comment by George Soros on 3/22 @ 12:26 am #
ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY!?!
Comment by Sean M. on 3/22 @ 1:12 am #
Because Barack sez so. That’s how. Duh.
Comment by JHoward on 3/22 @ 4:43 am #
cynn’s not here to not defend this rubbish, but anyway: The government exercising oversight of the companies it gave itself a controlling interest of by fiat tends to kinda predate your hissy fit, cynn.
Think, please. Yeah, “communist” does not overstate the problem. Why’d you vote for them — you were sufficiently warned.
Comment by SDN on 3/22 @ 4:56 am #
Stormy, you are a liar. Liar, meet Trollhammer.
Comment by Carin on 3/22 @ 5:50 am #
Stormy sez change the topic, guys! Funny – at a liberal blog I frequent, since the election has gone dark politically. So, the other day FINALLY they bring up something political. It was that ass Lawrence Wilkerson’s claim that BUSHCHENEY knew they had innocent men at gitmo and have kept them there anyway. The OUTRAGE, yada yada yada.
Liberals are so fucking deluded. So detached from what is going on. But, whatever, Stormy … if you LOOK, BUNNY approach to arguments works for you in real life … I say stick with it.
Comment by Carin on 3/22 @ 5:51 am #
A few commas and proofreading could have helped in that comment. Oh well.
Comment by geoffb on 3/22 @ 6:49 am #
These are not footsteps I’d follow but Sen. Chris Dodd may not agree, may even think it a path that works well.
Comment by charleshunter on 3/22 @ 7:35 am #
how about making it illeagal for execs in companys recieving bailout money to contribute to politicians?
Comment by Spiny Norman on 3/22 @ 8:01 am #
#48 B Moe,
Attack? Tsk, tsk… we all know that sort of language has been purged. It’s called “man-made disaster” now.
Comment by phreshone on 3/22 @ 8:10 am #
#
Comment by B Moe on 3/22 @ 12:21 am #
The thing I would really like to know: how is capping executive pay going to fix all the problems on Wall Street?
Very simple… there won’t be a wall street… we’ll be financed by the British again. They have all the high paying jobs. The 41,000 people who pay 50% of NYC taxes will now live in London and Toronto.
Nothing like a little class warfare to destroy a best functioning society in human existence
Comment by Spiny Norman on 3/22 @ 8:54 am #
#61 phreshone,
They don’t care if they destroy it, so long as it’s “fair”.
The operation was a complete success, but the patient failed to survive…
Comment by Joe on 3/22 @ 9:15 am #
The AIG bonuses are one thing. The company is completely afloat only by government money. It is not that unreasonable to suggest no mega bonuses (not the $5000 bonues, I mean the $1,000,000 bonuses) until the ship is saved. Sorry. If anything defer the bonuses until that happens, which is an incentive to make it happen sooner.
What is pathatic is how hypcritically, incompetently, and dishonestly the Dems handled this, specially Obama, Geithner, Schumer, Frank and especially Dodd.
So now they threaten class tax warfare and killing the golden goose completely by dragging in companies unlike AIG. Nice. Change we can believe in.
Comment by Joe on 3/22 @ 9:17 am #
As Rahm how he made 16 million in about two years as an “investment banker” in Chicago (hint: think of Hillary cattle futures). That was not on talent, that was a pay off, hence the reason these fuckers think that Wall Street is corrupt. It is as it pertains to them.
Comment by Christopher Taylor on 3/22 @ 9:25 am #
Never let a crisis go to waste
…even if you have to artificially generate it.
Pingback by Brain drain [Darleen Click] on 3/22 @ 9:59 am #
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Comment by Mr. Pink on 3/22 @ 10:21 am #
BTW does anyone know what the hell the Iraq war has to do with Obama legislating huge bonuses to executives and then trying to use the outrage over his own legislation to push for more control over the financial sector? Really I would love to know how those two have anything to do with eachother.
Comment by meya on 3/22 @ 10:53 am #
Y’all read the sunday times way before me.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 3/22 @ 11:09 am #
Mr. Pink, they’ve been conditioned to press the bar labeled BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH! to get their hit of hate-crack for so long that they’re simply not capable of doing anything else.
Comment by maggie katzen on 3/22 @ 3:36 pm #
now, now, I saw a picture in the paper this morning of people marching with flag draped coffins.
oh, I like this bit:
: (
Comment by SDN on 3/22 @ 7:00 pm #
Joe, the problem here is way deeper than either the bailout or the bonuses.
We are supposed to have a system of laws in place. If you take an action that is legal, not wise or good or smart, but LEGAL, then that action, whether it be getting the bonus promised under the terms of a contract, or providing goods to the government at a certain price, or holding an election, cannot be arbitrarily rewritten under a brand new law passed because the government officials are feeling threatened by the reaction to the consequences they either failed to foresee or found perfectly acceptable at that time.
This is exactly what the Supreme Court stated in Bush v Gore: if the election law states that a recount must be all or nothing, within a certain set of conditions, then neither the executive, legislative, or judicial branches can issue a ruling that, without finding a Constitutional issue rendering the whole law invalid, changes the rules in the past. If you don’t like the law, change it for the next time; this time, it is what it is.
A law that changes the rules in the past is an ex post facto law; this is why the Founders specifically prohibited it. In addition, they also prohibited Bills of Attainder, laws that were attached to a person. To the extent that a business is a legal person, such a prohibition would reasonably apply to the business as well.
Now, several people have pointed out that Congress has passed, and the courts have upheld, retroactive tax increases. So they have. However, they have not done so when the obvious intent of the tax was not to raise money from all citizens, but to function as an Ex Post Facto law or a Bill of Attainder against a particular person or group.
The Founders were out to prevent the return of a system where the rulers could decide at whim to come up with a contrived excuse to punish a citizen they had taken a dislike to. Because once the government has crossed that line, then the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror is not far behind.
I used to have discussions with Kim duToit and his wife about whether it was time to push the reset switch, ie. for the citizenry to revolt. They always said no, because they were concerned that this would wreck the rule-of-law-based system it was trying to preserve. I want to ask them now: when the government is in the process of wrecking the rule of law itself, how can a reset possibly do more harm?
Comment by mojo on 3/23 @ 9:31 pm #
HAHAHAHAhahahahahaha…