The give aways from the government are ennough to drive the tax payers angry. But add things like this and you realize why there is so much outrage over all the bailouts.
Merrill Lynch gave 700 employees bonuses of $1 million. This while the company was losing $27 billion. They paid the bonus in December - much earlier than it's usually paid - so they can get away with it before the Bank of America merger.
The fed and the treasury, which strong handed Bank of America to merge with Merrill does not seem to have any issues with these bonuses. It seems even Ken Lewis, Bank of America CEO, seems to have signed off - implicitly if not explicitly. But he fired John Thain so all the blame goes on John Thain.
Amid all this, Tim Geithner does not want any conditions imposed on the banks for taking the bailout. Not pay limits, no lending limits (This is one place where I agree with him. People are so debted right now and with the economy getting worse, it does not make sense to have lending limits), and no penalty for share holders! How do you give a bail out to bank and not penalize the share holders?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/business/12merrill.html?_r=1
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