SAMUEL'S RANTS

New York City securities industry firms paid out a total of $137 billion in employee bonuses from 2002 to 2007, according to figures compiled by the New York State Office of the Comptroller. Let's break that down: Wall Street honchos earned a bonus of $9.8 billion in 2002, $15.8 billion in 2003, $18.6 billion in 2004, $25.7 billion in 2005, $33.9 billion in 2006, and $33.2 billion in 2007.

Those years were the heyday of the hedge fund pirate, the private equity buccaneer, the 9- and 10-figure-salary quant jock, and other financial creatures who created all kinds of complex securities and highly leveraged transactions, many of which are now coming a cropper, from LBOs to CDOs.
 

What a deal. Financiers preached the free-market gospel and pocketed unheard-of sums of money—yet when times got tough, they called for a government bailout. "Markets work if participants are at risk to both positive and negative consequences," says Raghuram Rajan, an economist at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. "But on the upside, [financial firms] said, 'Hands off, don't upset the party,' and 'Don't even think of regulating us,' yet when things go the other way they say, 'We need help.'"

To be sure, not everyone has escaped unscathed. Nine months ago, Bear Stearns stock sold for $150 share. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) bought the beleaguered investment bank for $2 a share over the weekend, wiping out much of the wealth of the firm's employees.

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I am now waiting for the op-eds which warn us against any knee-jerk reactions towards more regulation  which could stunt the growth of the economy. Again I am struck by the tone I see in the press, most of the reporting just seems to be just that, a dry recitation of what happened with seemingly no insight into why we got into this fine mess and the unseemliness of the Fed doing all it can to shore these guys up with no sense of accountability.

And yes Obama and Mccain had responses, the wishy washy non response which got praised for not being (yes you got it right) a knee jerk reaction. No one dare question what's happening, or the establishment.