This diary is regarding this story...
Obama calls $18B in Wall St. bonuses 'shameful'
By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer – 44 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama issued a withering critique Thursday of Wall Street corporate behavior, calling it "the height of irresponsibility" for employees to be paid more than $18 billion in bonuses last year while their crumbling financial sector received a bailout from taxpayers. "It is shameful," Obama said from the Oval Office. "And part of what we're going to need is for the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint, and show some discipline, and show some sense of responsibility."
You will note that the story ends with this sentence:
The president did not talk about that proposal or any others.
Excuse me, Mr. President, but expecting "the folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint, and show some discipline, and show some sense of responsibility"--expecting, in other words, for them to act altruistically on their own accord--is downright naive. People on Wall Street are inherently predisposed to act in their self-interest: that's how they became rich in the first place. Lecturing the titans of Wall Street about what they should do, instead of telling them what they will obligated to do under new laws, is totally hollow.
If there are no actual proposals, laws, investigations, actual regulatory statutes implemented and enforced, then your words, Mr. President, are meaningless.
The question: what will he DO about the situation? Telling Wall Street to grow a heart is useless. Wall Street and the banks will ONLY respond to vigorously enforced laws and binding conditions. They will NOT respond to a Sunday sermon.