Greenspan

There should be not the least bit of surprise in the half-hearted testimony of Alan Greenspan that, yeah, maybe he should have done better. There should be no bewilderment from even a branch bank manager, much less the 'oracle' of the Federal Reserve, that somehow that house of cards would stand forever...that somehow people left to their own devices would refrain from applying criminal levels of greed and malevolence.

Isn't that why we have police departments? Why did anyone think Wall Street would be different?

To that end, we are now faced with two fresh pieces of evidence. First, as is common, nearly half of a Wall Street executive's annual compensation comes in the form of year end bonuses, allegedly tied to his performance, and that of his employer. Obviously, things are not good, and to underscore that, those Wall Street firms have laid off thousands of employees. But despite the smaller number of people on the payroll, the cumulative size of the that huge pool of year end payout money is actually higher than last year. Whether it is fully paid out...and in what way...is yet to be determined. But you are certainly justified to believe these execs will find a way to fully feather their own nests, even if it takes your tax dollars to do it.

And secondly, what about those bailout funds? Remember how they were ostensibly taken out of our pockets so that they could help banks make the loans that would keep American businesses operating...help homeowners pay their mortgages? Well, according to the New York Times, during an internal conference call this week, an executive at JP Morgan Chase told his employees that the government bailout money would be fine source of capital for 'growth'...to buy other ailing banks. Not one word about 'unfreezing' the credit market.

So, the robbers are unchastened. Someone call the cops.