Wow! Faking an Outrage....

Everyone from Obama to the writers in NYT and WSJ are expressing outrage at

1. The $165 million bonus payments made by AIG to its employees...Seventy-three employees were paid more than $1 million in the latest bonuses at the insurance giant American International Group, according to the New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo. Of course, the names of these people were not released. Apparently these million dollar babies had no qualms stealing money from the public.
2. The parties that got big chunks of the $180 billion bailout money that was given to AIG.
   Financial companies that received multibillion-dollar payments owed by A.I.G. include Goldman Sachs ($12.9 billion), Merrill Lynch ($6.8 billion), Bank of America ($5.2 billion), Citigroup ($2.3 billion) and Wachovia ($1.5 billion). Big foreign banks also received large sums from the rescue, including Société Générale of France and Deutsche Bank of Germany, which each received nearly $12 billion; Barclays of Britain ($8.5 billion); and UBS of Switzerland ($5 billion). A.I.G. also named the 20 largest states, starting with California, that stood to lose billions last fall because A.I.G. was holding money they had raised with bond sales. In total, A.I.G. named nearly 80 companies and municipalities that benefited most from the Fed rescue, though many more that received smaller payments were left out. WOW! A BIG SURPRISE! Hanky Panky Paulson using public taxpayer money to benefit his own stake and bail out his buddies at Goldman and other banks. Corruption at its finest! Bangladesh does not even come close.

Ben, Bush and Hank's "The Song Remains the Same" - Me no Mea Culpa...

The NYT reports that "Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, and Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. told Congress on Thursday that new regulatory powers are needed to insulate the national economy from damage if a big Wall Street firm collapses."

So far, no one- neither President Bush, nor Mr. Paulson nor any of the previous Treasury Secretaries nor any of the CEOs of the home builders, mortgage brokers, or banks nor any of the regulators- has accepted blame or taken responsibility for his or her role in creating the current credit crisis and an ethical crisis. Quite a few people, including myself, had sounded warnings as early as 2004 and 2005 about the crooked practices used to juice up the mortgage market and the basic bet that the government will bail out the risk takers. While this is exactly what has happened, there is no public outcry about the culpability of the leaders. The American public, myself included, sorely needs an education in accountability- or have we progressed to a higher level where we do not want accountability?
Another example:
Charles Prince, the guy who led Citi to its current miseries, under whose reign Citi committed a number of grossly unethical acts, and who was effectively fired from Citi, was elected to Xerox Corporation's Board of Directors. Great Reward for a Job Well Done!