Monday, March 23, 2009

"Off with their heads?"

The latest news that 10 out of the 15 top AIG-bonused executives and 9 out of the top 10 have agreed to return their ill-gotten-gains has the anti-bonus crowd in Congress qvelling (gloating) at having tamed these Wall Street-Pompadours. After all didn't these Congress members step into the arena to defeat the failed executives who have gotten bonuses. But the real question is haven't the politicians and the media used the anger against the AIG-rewarded executives directed attention away from the real problem of which AIG is only the symptom? The AIG executives - as incompetent and vaneglorious as they may be - would never have gotten those bonuses if it weren't for the over all Wall Street "let them eat cake" culture. Remember the words of Wall Street's Gordon Gekko: "Greed is good." And that is the essence of Wall Street (maybe capitalism's) culture.

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