Wall Street is planning to hand out six- and seven-figure bonuses, with total pay at banks and securities firms hitting $145 billion.
President Obama released a proposal for a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee to be levied on the biggest banks. It's a good, if limited move. The White House explains:
The fee will be in place at least 10 years, but even longer if needed to pay back every penny of TARP. This will not be a cost borne by community banks or small firms; only the largest firms with more than $50 billion in assets will be affected. In fact, 60% of the revenue will come from the 10 largest financial firms.
That's to pay back taxpayer money that went to bail out those "too big to fail" banks that threw us into this financial crisis to begin with, you understand.
And Scott Brown? The Massachusetts Republican Senate candidate doesn't want to answer the question in person, but through a spokesman he's willing to say he opposes the new fee on the big banks.
Martha Coakley, by contrast, has been called a "Wall Street scourge" by ABC News for her efforts to hold the big banks accountable for things like subprime mortgages.
