Bonuses: regrettably necessary

So where's the incentive to avoid the next financial fiasco? These guys collected, and got to keep, huge bonuses while the subprime gravy train was rolling. Then they got huge bonuses after it exploded, wiped out shareholders, and put their companies in jeopardy that supposedly required government intervention.

Why shouldn't they just do it again?

But when the economy starts to turn up again, perhaps as early as next year...

I think you're dreaming. Where are people going to get the money to spend to make our 70%-consumer-driven economy go?

The winning strategy, and the one I hope Pres. Obama embarks upon, is the one that leads to structural change that, rather than throttling entrepreneurial spirit, leverages it. Only this path can effect a robust economy that benefits wider swaths of the population than any of plutocracy, socialism or well-intentioned Cambridge and Oxford boys with overstimulated minds.

That might work if we could somehow reduce the drain caused by parasites who only make money for themselves, rather than creating wealth.

The one question to be answered now is this: Will the wealthy again share their portion of the pie in the greater interest of America? Can they be made to?

I would state the problem differently. IMO, the wealthy have concentrated their efforts on getting bigger slices of everyone else's pies, and have neglected investments that would lead to the creation of wealth. Reducing their taxes will do nothing to help the country, it will only help the wealthy get wealthier faster.

... they WANT the page views that Google sends them. And if you want to hear some real howling, just watch what happens when Google says "OK, we won't include your publication".

Methinks someone wants to have their cake and eat it too.

Oh to lose a fortune and be left with only a smaller fortune.

You don't get it. A lot of these people have more money than most of us could ever figure out how to spend, but the one thing that bothers them most is the idea that they might not be making even more money as quickly as possible.

Obama can tear up employment contract law?

No, but the parties to the contract can decide if they'd rather re-negotiate or forgo further bailouts.

By the way what do we say to those families who now can't afford to live in their own homes in NYC?

I'm sure we can find some appropriate words in one of Rush Limbaugh's rants about evil poor people who try to get more than they deserve.

The CEO headhunter whines that $500,000 "isn't a lot of money" ...

Then why was there so much howling from business about increasing the minimum wage to $7.25/hour, which is less than $15,000/year for a normal work year of 2,000 hours?

Otherwise, it is just bad business policy.

We've tried running this country based entirely on what was good for business since the days of Saint Ronald, and look where that got us.

Free clue: Your crap doesn't work.

You don't really think President Obama sat down at his computer last night and typed that op-ed up himself, do you?

Actually, yes. He has been observed many times speaking in complete, grammatically-correct sentences, so why wouldn't he be able to write? He's not Dubya.

In the first fifteen minutes of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, the Dow rose over 100 points -- because, speculated the Wall Street Journal, traders were betting that "the grim jobs report would hasten the passage of the stimulus package."

I just heard my company's CEO tell us that 401k matching would be suspended, and that the pace of layoffs would increase. I suspect lots of other companies are doing the same thing, which will cause a significant drop in the demand for shares of stock as 401k plans reduce their purchases.

"Quasar stupid. Gingrich emits more stupid in one second than a galaxy emits in a year".

What we don't know is whether the plan will work.

The subprime-fueled spending spree was not this country's real problem. It was just a narcotic that hid the pain of a serious disease. The supply of dope dried up and now we're suffering withdrawal. Our government is treating the withdrawal symptoms, but they still don't acknowledge the underlying disease.

The real problem is that America doesn't create enough wealth to be able to afford its lifestyle. The greedbags on Wall Street have cut the heart out of our economy by sending jobs overseas. This got them a few years of easy profit increases, but now we're all going to pay the price of their shortsighted greed.

It will be difficult to get ourselves out of this hole. It wasn't just jobs that were exported; the skills to perform those jobs were also exported, and now we'll face competition from the people we trained to replace us. American kids aren't interested in studying science and technology because they know they such skills won't earn them a living. Even if we realize our mistake and try to reverse course, it will take many years to rebuild a population of skilled workers to do it.

Wall Street has sold America for a few pieces of silver.

Correlation != causation.

It doesn't matter if it's true. The fundies are gonna go screaming apeshit bonkers at the idea of people having more sex for fun and not making children.

So, we can decrease our usage of fossil fuel-burning, greenhouse gas-belching automobiles, and cut the commute time for Southern Californian gamblers at the same time.

Wouldn't it be more efficient to legalize casinos in California? That would create a nice stream of tax revenue for a state that badly needs it, and would also greatly reduce the resource waste of moving people great distances.