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Obama Says He Doesn’t Begrudge Bank Executives’ Bonuses
President Obama channeled the anti-populist side of his character, telling Bloomberg/BusinessWeek in an interview on Tuesday that he didn't begrudge Wall Street executives their big bonuses.
Mr. Obama, responding to a question, termed the $17 million bonus awarded Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, or the $9 million that went to Lloyd Blankfein, the Goldman Sachs chief executive, as "extraordinary," but compared the amounts to what some athletes make. He said, "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."
"I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen," Mr. Obama said of Mr. Dimon and Mr. Blankfein. "I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system."
Mr. Obama has been straddling a divide, sometimes delivering a message that tries to project anger on behalf of American taxpayers, who don't like the idea of bonus money being doled out to the same executives whose institutions received federal bailout funds. At other times, Mr. Obama has made an effort not to come across as anti-business, tempering his remarks when speaking directly to a business audience, as with the Bloomberg interview.
He also repeated his call for shareholders to have more of a say in executive compensation, which he said would serve to rein in bonuses, and would more align performance with pay.
In addition, Mr. Obama's remarks fall against the backdrop of new attacks by the Democratic National Committee against Republicans for wooing Wall Street donors at a time when the administration is pushing for financial regulatory reform through legislation in Congress.
93 Comments so far
Show AllOur president thinks he can be all things to all people. A little too much hubris. The truth is that all this money may become worthless when chaos takes over.
It is more likely that the world will move before long to the Euro instead of the US Dollar for oil and other commodities. The longer we ignore the massive debt for war, to which we are now beholden to China, the more likely the countries of the world will move to the Euro.
The world's market (numeraire) currency will continue to be the US dollar as long as the US Empire has the military power to force the worthless paper on the world markets.
If the US decides to go to war in Pakistan, then all bets are off.It's just the thing: a country with 140 plus million people, nuclear weapons, and a military divided against itself.Of course, we would never be that stupid.We wouldn't want to put ourselves out of business, would we?
"We wouldn't want to put ourselves out of business, would we?"
Why not? Put a stake thru Capitalisms ugly heart and start over again. Seperate Corporate from State for starts. Give the Environment rights. Bring sustainability and accountability first and foremost. Release all the secrete documents and files of the CIA and Military. Show people exactly why Capitalism is evil. Follow some of the footsteps of the S Americans who have seen THEIR countries trashed by good ol capitalism. Nationalize food, energy, healthcare...anything that you don't want screwed with.
I thought there already were troops in Pakistan and that US/NATO forces have been droning (if that is a word) and bombing in Pakistan for over a year now.
Pakistan is merely along the path of the trans-Afghanistan oil pipeline to India. Thank Unicol, Bectel and Carlyle Group for any war that arises there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Afghanistan_Pipeline
Note the route is the exact path of the predator drones who keep discovering terrorists in an West to East direction on the exact towns mentioned by the TAPI pipeline project.
Coincidence?
I think not.
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of exporting MORE American jobs to India so CEO's can rake in the big bucks. Obomber must be impeached and thrown out along with the entire Congress.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
Interesting points, TJ.
The government knows about peak oil. Seems logical that they would prepare for the time when we would need our military to go and get some more of "our" oil that's under "their" sand.
Prepare for a brave new, and very unstable, world.
Yeah Ted,
I'd agree with you, but the problem is that this conquered oil and natural gas is not going to America. It's going to India. It's going to fuel the increased construction of Indian Sweatshops. You can't run call centers without energy. Or other exported American jobs substituted with a two-dollar-a-day Indian.
We're fighting a war to destroy our own domestic labor force.
That's what I think, anyway.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
Yup, last time I checked, Confederate money is now worth way more than greenbacks.Where's great grandad's carpetbag?
Correction: "Our president thinks he can (pretend) be all things to all people."
"Our president thinks he can be all things to all people. A little too much hubris."
Well, he's starting to bring to mind the old maxim: He who stands for nothing will fall for anything.
Shit.
What a pompous opportunist.
I would like to send Susie Green from "Curb Your Enthusiasm" to tell Obama what I think of this statement. She has the right vocabulary and attitude.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ItuXlIEne4
We all need a laugh sometimes.
Joe
He's actually stupid.
Make that S-T-U-P-I-D . . . all in caps. Lower case doesn't even begin to describe Obama's cowardice and incompetence. He is the cheapest, most obvious and tone deaf kind of political opportunist. He carries around in his pocket a stick of dynamite with the fuse lit and keeps telling it not to go off. That's S-T-U-P-I-D!
I cannot agree. When his one term in office is up he'll be looking for a position, and where better than on corporate welfare? After all he has done for them, one of them must have a sinecure for him; perhaps it's already arranged.
"Is that a stick of dynamite in your pocket, honey, or are you just pleased to see us?"
Of course there is no guarantee that the whole system won't have flushed itself down the gurgler by then, but a few more band-aids and a bit of string should keep it going a while longer.
:)
I'm having one of those visions, like the special effects where one person's face morphs into another's, he's turning into Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer, Joe Lieberman, Ariel Sharon, Daddy Warbucks... no. no! NO! MAKE IT STOP!
YES mr. president they ARE very savvy businessmen. In a democracy they have managed to be bailed out of their own made financial casino, as well as have NO real opposition political party challenge them in any serious way WHILE the country they reside in , is headed to a depression.
AND still are getting propped up by trillions of the government while they are acting antagonistic to, and claiming that is being too obtrusive with regulations...regulations that aren't going to do shit.
Shakespeare modern, and comedy tragic....if it didn't affect the people and the planet so much.
this ain't funny.
all of them...politicians and the bankers .....are laughing so hard in their back rooms, they're pissing their pants.
while we still talk of 'third parties' or 'progressive democrats'....or on the infatile 'typing blog' left, wait for some leninist 'hero' to save us.
bottom up class war.....no guns....just all our bodies and the power we have to shut down the marketplace.
general strike ??? and general strike again.....and again....
on the streets...organize....may 1st to 3rd....3 days....direct democracy...and direct action...no more war....no more of this paternalist crap directing our lives...
General Strike is the right idea, you've got. Nothing less will even begin to change this steaming pile of crap.
"I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen," Mr. Obama said of Mr. Dimon and Mr. Blankfein. "I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system."
Pretty much sums it up dunnit? Of course he knows Blankfein and Dimon, he works for them.
Exactly. He heads up the U.S. Government BRANCH of Goldman Sachs.
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, during their campaigns, both benefited handsomely from Wall Street donations. Both easily surpassed poor ol' Republican John McCain in campaign contributions from the financial services sector. It is part of a broader fundraising shift toward Democrats, compared to past campaigns when Republicans were the favorites of Wall Street. The same can be said about Defense Inc. (Viola, Obama elected.)
"That is part of the free-market system."
What a pile of pandering crap. Free-market my ass.
If it were a "free market," Dimon and Blankfein would be holding begging cups in Chinatown.
-30-
Think of it as an intermittent free market. It blinks on and off. Off for those seated at the table. On for scrappers.
Spot on, Ribba Man.LOL
The photograph of Obama's eyes, next to the article, may actually be representative of the REAL Obama!
Did anyone notice?
Yes, Obama looks drugged. Maybe David Ike is right and he is now the human shell for the lizard people! :)
I have a vivid imagination, but he has a devious look in his eyes, one could say an evil look in his eyes. Dick Cheney should be proud.
I think he's got the look of WC Fields in 'Never Give a Sucker an Even Break', but he ain't so funny.
This ass is going to get a second term. Psycho babble like this worked so well for W.
The big picture is that the financial sector has through the changes in law were able to scam toxic assets across the oceans. And with the way these bankers are allowed to continue their business will indeed cause overseas capital market to doubt the US Government ability to bring integrity to US gov. bonds and other financial instruments necessary for any country to raise capital.
Hence, world currency will now surely shift to Euro.
And US government will have to settle for its treasury be relegated to 2nd place.
The financial industry will feel no pain as they will also shift with the market easily.
End of 70 year rein as the top dog in the money world. All good thing do come to an end.
If America becomes full fledged Amerika, its currency will fall further in the depth of reserve requirements by central bankers of this capitalist world.
A likely story.
The rich masters of the world will not shift to the Euro. Though they will toy with one currency vs another. But in the end they will pick a 'flight to safety'... and what makes a currency 'safe'? The control of Guns. Guns empower all contracts, which is really why America has hundreds of bases around the world... to empower the 'business deals' of the transnational corporations. Guns keep the looters away, or facilitate looting, as desired. Guns solve all issues, across languages. Guns are the final arbiters.
See Gen. Smedley Butler. And see "Confessions of an Economic Hitman". And see Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine". And see the Mafia. Currency is sublimated manifested political power. That is all. And currency is subject to macro-political-manipulation. Only then is it used within the mundane micro-economies of daily life. Money is a way to order societies. It is created by societies. And order is imposed by power. Even if imperfectly. Not by agreement. Usually.
And what 'currency' is backed up by the most firepower of all time? You got it. The American dollar. This is why it is the reserve currency today. This is why oil is priced in dollars. This is why there is an annual trillion-dollar 'defense' budget that is so sacrosanct. Because the American dollar is backed, not by some silly shiny rocks, but by the firepower that keeps the rich in control and their money safe and sound. And as the overpopulated world devolves into an argument about the remains of resources, right on down to food and water, it apparently will be guns that will decide who gets what, and which currency is of any value. Sadly so, so far at any rate.
Oh, and what about the 'integrity' of US government bonds? Well, there is really no reason to even sell or offer bonds these days, which are now become merely instruments of Public Wealth Re-Distribution UPWARDS to the rich. So that is another bogus rip-off of the average American taxpayer, whose taxes go to paying the interest on said bonds forever, instead of going to useful and worthy projects and people.
Bonds are also useful devices to entangle foreign governments, like China, into being handy sock puppets and whipping boys, as they buy-in to free-booting Friedmanite capitalism. First hit is free, China. But this comes at the price of total debt slavery for most Americans.
However if, as it has, the Federal Reserve can supply some $22 Trillion in brand-new money to banksters just this last year (dwarfing the entire built-up US Federal Debt- no, not just the deficit but the Entire Debt), and Wall Street can multi-leverage derivatives to a level that the Bank of International Settlements has estimated to be greater than a Debt of more than $1.5 Quadrillion (yes, that's $1,500 TRILLION- which debt will probably have to be bailed out by the US government, also, again- unless the entire Gordian Knot is cut off and discarded, as it should be, making all these evil and malicious debt contracts and derivatives illegal and invalid retroactively worldwide), yes, if the Fed has done all that, then why doesn't the Fed just take out the American debt... ALL OF IT, Federal, State, Local, NGO, mortgage... at the 0% interest terms it gives to the banksters? And eliminate debt payments altogether, and send the principal back to the bondholders. To be taxed. And spent.
And then the Fed can forgive the government most of its debt, as it can, as it is us. And then continue to finance government needs at 0% interest from now on. With no bonds nor interest. Simple. Then the Fed would no longer belong to the banksters, but it will finally be the real American People's Federal Reserve.
Oh...that's right, sorry, that would be 'Socialist'!
Great post Mr. FVHorn,
Your kind of insightful submission makes wading through all the mindless EncinoCaveMan posts worthwhile. Your post is a jewel, and answers a nagging question I have had for some time: Why doesn't Wall Street Tumble like it did in the 1930's in the face of hundreds of banks found insolvent?
I suspected incorrectly it was just the PTT (Plunge Protection Team) a little-known body enacted by Reagan in which the US Government buys up sinking sectors of stocks during selloffs to give the appearance that things are better than they really are.
Naturally, when coupled with the bailouts, it's anything but a free market. It's a manipulated market in which only the market-makers and investment banks know for sure which way it is headed (up or down.) RICO should have all these Investment Bank CEO's in jail, but just like the old toothless SEC, it's compromised to a level of corruption that should make even Mexico envious. I'm afraid old Bernard MadeOff and his twenty-year, multi-billion dollar Ponzi Scheme was only the tip of the book-cooking and insider-trading Iceberg on Wall Street. The honest investor would have better odds inside Rick's Casino in Casablanca.
So the dollar is really a "gunboat currency." Any nation like Iran or Iraq, which threatened not to accept dollars for oil found an aircraft carrier anchored off-shore with ill intent. The social turbulence in Greece seems like another central bank boil-over. Gov books were cooked and now somebody has let that cat out of the bag and it's threatening to bring down the Euro. Gee, I wonder which three-letter agency is behind that one?
Never Mind.
I don't want to know.
So the bottom line is that any nation who allows a central bank to charge the people interest for their own money; for the privilege of printing funny-money which is only backed up by more funny-money, is slated for ruinous debt, wealth disparity, and eventual necessity of perpetual war to prop up it's monopoly money. This is what brought down the Spanish Empire: they borrowed so much money from Northern Europe that no amount of plundered gold and silver from the New World could ever pay just the ruinous interest. I think a parallel problem happen next to the British in which they ran out of silver and turned instead to trading Opium. The Opium Wars of Hong Kong were the result and not too long after, the Empire collapsed.
This is the state of America today in my opinion. Before GWB pulled his last-minute, daylight bank robbery, we were already paying about 428 billion a year in interest on the national debt alone. Now what is it? The entire national debt was only Seven Trillion dollars at the time, before the Two Tarp robberies (there was a secret 900 billion TARP that the press didn't cover called an "infusion" the Friday before the 700 Billion dollar TARP slap in the face.)
But after Obama's Abominations (give-aways) I'm uncertain how much interest we are facing next year. Anybody know? GDP's gotta be in the toliet since all our jobs have been sent overseas. If the debt interest payment is really a great percentage of GDP (never mind GNP) we may already be insolvent.
This answers the question: when are we pulling out of Iraq and Afganistan: Never. It's our only growth business.
Separately, it's just amazing to me how history repeats itself. The 1929 depression was preceded by a speculative real estate collapse. The 1929 deregulated banking is what led to banking and social reform which kept us out of serious trouble until 2008. But first ten years of 1930's misery prevailed as band-aid after band-aid failed to regenerate the economy. And then you know what really got us out of it, don't you?
World War.
Which is why I am very, very concerned for all our welfare. These crooks just don't know any other way than Pearl Harbor Maneuvers. We've got to get the word out to the TV Zombies by leaving copies of FV Horn's post laying around everywhere.
Ladies and Gentlemen, It's time for all good men and women everywhere to crank up their printers.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
A bonus is earned when an individual outperforms expectations. His expected performance is covered by his contracted salary. Giving bonuses for underperfomance is the height of stupidity.
Obama's attempt to tie in a ballplayer's bonuses is flat out silly. One player can't win the World Series. A team wins the Series. An individual player's contributions can far exceed expectations and for that a bonus is appropriate.
Methinks Obama's performance is deteriorating. He's certainly not on a path to earn any bonus. In fact, his contract is beginning to look like a very serious mistake on the part of we, the people. As hard as it may be to believe, even McCain-Palin might have done better.
RJW
Youch, realveive!!
McCain-Palin might've done better? Unh-unh, I don't think so. Obama's performance has been totally disgraceful and he's really screwed the American electorate hard, but a McCain-Palin ticket would've sold the American people down the river just as quickly.
The country is in the shitter. It is beyond saving. Corruption is too rampant and too deep. I hope Palin is elected president in 2012 for two reason. It won't make one damned bit of difference and I think we could use the comic relief.
I said this very same thing this morning to my son's father. Bush was painful, but you could still laugh. With Obama I just find myself getting angrier and angrier and I often feel physically ill. I figure that if we're going to die from starvation, lack of health care, war and all the other goodies that are in store for us by the time Palin is elected, we might as well at least have a good chuckle. Not to mention that laughter is the best medicine, so in the end we might be stronger to fight back. Look at all the colorful characters of every stripe that ruled over Rome. Palin fits in beautifully with the idea of a deteriorating, degenerate empire. We can do this, America.
"With Obama I just find myself getting angrier and angrier and I often feel physically ill."
Me, too, literally phusically ill, nauseated.
"I figure that if we're going to die from starvation, lack of health care, war and all the other goodies that are in store for us by the time Palin is elected, we might as well at least have a good chuckle."
I'm 60 years old, and everyone dies eventually. I don't feel so bad for myself but it almost brings tears to imagine what the younger people are going to have to suffer through.
"Palin fits in beautifully with the idea of a deteriorating, degenerate empire."
Precisely.
I said this with Bush, and I will say it with Obama. It is time to start beating the impeachment drum.
Obama has been bailing out megabanks, insurance companies, and other Wall Street hucksters for months now, and here he comes giving us that free market trash talk - what a f***ing ideologue, a demagogue, and an opportunist!
The free market is an ideological construct: it does not exist, save in the minds of neoliberal ideologues, Ayn Randers, and other conservative fools.
"I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system." Obama
Spoken like the true capitalist that he is. I gave Bush the benefit of the doubt right after 9/11. Gullible as I am, I gave Obama the benefit of the doubt for a few months after he was elected. No more 'benefit of the doubts'. Obama certainly didn't talk this way when he needed the progressive and black votes.
Anyone who could make a statement like the one above has lost all touch with 'most Americans'.
Obama is a bag man for the extortionists who control legislation and the economy. He's *that* sleazy.
Even if we consider nothing else, anyone who says what he says here, and anyone who would be capable of delivering the putrid speech he gave at the Peace Prize ceremony is beyond redemption .
He's a dishonorable man in a key position in the power elite.
Is it just me or does Obama look like Hayden (wooden) Christianson in the last (unbearably stupid) Star Wars movie, in which the conflicted and grief-stricken mama's boy and borderline superhero Anakin Skywalker becomes the raging sociopath Darth Vader and spends the last half of the movie glowering petulantly at everybody while slaughtering them.
Who knows what's next? A furious round of Blackwater-run drone bombings in Pakistan? Another Haditha in Iraq? Maybe an "incident' in Honduras or Colombia? Is the "cool" one about to overheat? In reality, is he just a sort of nervy, glib, but ultimately weak and clueless kid from the fringes of empire (Hawaii in for the desert planet) ambitious enough to vault up to the majors (the Jedi or the Dems) but without even the most basic idea of what it means to be there? His regime has been the most excruciating exercise in margin-nibbling perhaps since Buchanan or Polk; maybe worse. And now it appears this very "pragmatic", "bi-partisan" and "centrist" posing and preening is going to cost him first Congress, then quite possibly the White House.
Maybe we'll get Miss Perky for president after all...
Hard to say.
"His regime has been the most excruciating exercise in margin-nibbling perhaps since Buchanan or Polk; maybe worse."
Buchanan, yes. Polk, no. Polk was very effective in reaching his goals, particularly the annexation of California.
It used to bug me, the standard history texts called Polk a "near-great" president on the simple lines that he had a specific set of goals and effectively reached them. There was not a peep in those books about whether or not his goals were worthy, and his methods (quite dishonorable) apparently didn't enter into the "near-great" calculation either.
I very much want Obama to succeed. If he succeeds America succeeds. However his recent endorsement of Wall Street mega bonuses is insensitive while one of every eight Americans go to food kitchens to stave off hunger.
P.S. ballplayers are also overpaid. Team owners should reduce ticket prices and their big profits. Restore baseball to a national pastime ordinary people can afford.
Obama has already succeeded and America has already lost. What are you talking about?
He's made for life.
Succeed at what? Succeed at screwing the country?
Because, the fuckin' post should have been liberally laced with profanity; detailing the evidence of blatant shitfuckery on the part of Snobama and Co. Oh yeah, resist the tyrants by any means necessary!
CD does practice some censorship, but it isn't always clear what the criteria are. For instance, I am told that it censors alternative discussions and explanations of what happened on 9/11.
President Obama is a freak of nature; a mutant able to talk out of both sides of his mouth at the same time. He is able to condemn rapacious CEOs who take billions in bonuses and simultaneously justifies their feculent actions. Amazing!