Just to look like the good guys I'm sure they are. After all, it's for the good of the country!
Wall Street's five biggest firms paid more than $3 billion in the last five years to their top executives, while they presided over the packaging and sale of loans that helped bring down the investment-banking system.
The $3.1 billion paid to the top five executives at the firms between 2003 and 2007 was about three times what JPMorgan spent to buy Bear Stearns. Goldman Sachs had the highest total, with $859 million, followed by Bear Stearns at $609 million. CEO pay at the five firms increased each year, doubling to $253 million in 2007, according to data compiled from company filings.
Hey, the phrase "claw back" doesn't pass my lips. Let alone "confiscation."
We're reasonable people here!
- lambert's blog
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Restitution
is the word I believe, and it should be mandatory, not voluntary. $700 billion didn't just disappear because of changes in the housing market, requiring us to now replace it. A lot of that wealth has been stripped from the investment companies in the form of dividends, borrowing, extraordinary bonuses and salaries, profits, assets, and the fortunes made on Wall Street in recent years through reckless speculation. Make them pay back what they gained through fraud and irresponsibility, "right down to the tires on their Mercedes" as we heard on the floor of Congress! Forget this "bailout" crap.