Glenn, thank you for posts. I have been trying to make the same argument, though not as eloquently or succinctly as you have, to my fellow Obama supporters. As a background, for the first time in my life I gave money and volunteered to a campaign so I won't take back seat to anyone. However, my position is as follows, I work hard to get Obama elected but as soon as he got elected I took a defensive position in which I will stay until and unless he shows me otherwise and deliver on his promises. And even then my question will continue to be "what have you done for me lately?"

Glenn, keep up the good work. I've been passing around your posts to my friends in the hope of opening a discussion about how to engage this new administration.

Just a bit off topic but in response to Pmorlan's comments: two-tiered justice system =welcome to being a black man in this country. I used to joke with my colleagues that the Bush admin's actions were the best lessons to teach white Americans what it's like to be an AA in America. Imagine day-in and day-out living with the fear that wherever, whenever you could be picked up for looking a certain way or saying the wrong thing. That the justice system which should be protecting you actually considers you guilty until proven innocent but in meantime you stay locked up while waiting for the wheel of justice to churn. That you could get locked up (if you're lucky) or shot in your own doorstep for taking out your wallet to show ID. Be part of a peace movement and have the police infiltrate it. Speak ill of the govt. or read some anti war literature and some system somewhere will add points to your risk score which may prohibit you from getting on a plane to go see grandma or get a job.

Of course, there is a two tier system and with the government getting more and more access to our personal lives, very soon it will be the real life minority report but with true equality among blacks, whites, hispanics, asians, etc...

So here it is, as the divide between the elite class and the rest of us grows, more and more of my white sisters and brothers will actually walk in our shoes. I didn't wish it but here it is so joke is on me (or rather on all of us). Now you know, the man is real.

Weren't we told that we could NOT know who the counterparties were because the contracts stipulated that they couldn't, blah blah blah. So, it seems to me if they can break those contracts, which we were told might costs billions for breaking then they can break employment contracts for idiots. Unless there was never any such contractual language and if so were they lying then or are they lying now? Which is it exactly?

Second, who the hell writes a contract that guarantees you a bonus whether you make money or lose money (head you win, tail I lose)? And shouldn't the lawyers who wrote these dumb contracts, the senior executives who reviewed them and the board members who approved them also be fired for incompetence or maybe worst.

I am not a lawyer but I slept at a Holiday inn last night and as an inn-lawyer, I can tell you unequivocally: something is rotten in Denmark.

I signed the FDL petition after I'd written to my senator, Chuck Schumer who's as solid a supporter of WS as any. I basically told him that he needed to step in and say something both to save his hides and his friends on wall (rob me blind) street.

idl, that is a pretty lucid argument from a legal perspective but there is also a political optic to this, which of course is your point -- that politics should not override the law. Point well taken. That said, I still believe management can drive a hard bargain (and for all we know they might have) for their clients- us.

Leaving aside the comparison w. carmakers, the idea that contract cannot be renegotiated is laughable, they can and they are all the time. I think the outrage has two parts. First, the way this was communicated is that management has no choice, which as a matter of law and politics is untrue. Management has a choice, what matters is how it exercises these choices. Second, to state that they need to keep the "best and brightest" is to simply rub salt into the wound. I mean even if every single one of these guys were Einstein, you simply cannot make that statement. Others have made the argument that these derivatives are so complex that only the mad geniuses who created them can unwind them. I seriously doubt that. Even if that were the case, you can probably divide and conquer and peel some of these guys off, probably right below the leadership level, to stay on at a lower salary and take care of business.

Lastly, I think congress and the administration have many more options at their disposal to "help" these fools make the right decision.

I just think that in spite of the fine print in the contracts, you cannot in all conscious allow these guys to walk away scott free.

In closing, from everything we know so far, I believe there may be a case of fraud here as well. These guys entered into contracts they knew AIG couldn't pay if it came to it and this is something we need to use as the beginning of a conversation with them on bonuses.

I appreciate your lucid analysis and would love to hear back from you and others.