As part of the Barclay's bailout of Lehman Brothers, staff at Lehman’s New York office who helped to cause the world’s biggest corporate bankruptcy are to share in $2.5 billion's worth of bonues.
The draft fed bailout proposal ($700 Billion!) contained the following Bush-like clauses:
Sec. 2(b) Necessary Actions.--The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation:
(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;
(2) entering into contracts without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;
Sec. 8. Review.
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
And now, word has come that the federal bailout could include foreign banks as well.
Barack Obama and the Dems are right-- the proposal should contain independent oversight and limits on executive compensation given to those who (mis)managed their corporations into failure.
I haven't seen or heard anything meaningful from McCain on this entire situation (firing the SEC chairman? A 9/11-type commission? Come on). He and Phil Gramm were the ringleaders of the deregulation crew that got us in this mess to begin with. And just last week, McCain pulled a 24-hour flip-flop on the AIG bailout-- telling the Today show that he was against it, then telling ABC the very next day that he supported it. This is the guy who can't keep track of how many homes he has or how many cars he has.
No comments:
Post a Comment