Don’t get too mad at the execs, without getting mad at the government too. They are the ones who wrote that thing in such a hurry, filling it with their pork barrel spending, telling everyone there’s no time to lose.
If they took a bit more time analyzing the payout and less time slapping on special interest money, they may have been able to legally avoid paying bonuses.
legally avoid paying bonuses: those funds were going to get paid one way or another….THEY wrote that law to get funds..”.legally avoid” would have left them laughing all the way to the bank.
The People in a democracy get the the govt they deserve. In a country where reality TV & American Idol are the most popular forms of entertianment. Beck, mannity and Osama bin limbaugh are huge. We get what we deserve. the parasites at Goldman-Sachs keep raping America and the Rightwing main stream media keep telling the sheep it’s the sheeps fault. AND THEY BELIEVE IT.
Don’t worry, those bonuses have the same “trickle down effect” as the Bush tax cuts for the same wealthy CEOs. We have seen how those work. “The economy is healthy!”
While I agree the government has a responsibility to ensure this never happens again, I also have to say that just because you can, does not mean you should.
Those execs do have a moral obligation to NOT screw over the world’s economy just so they can make a few more dollars on their own portfolios. This isn’t about just getting a few more dollars back on your tax refund, they almost plunged the entire world into a deep, deep depression.
They should be sitting in a jail cell, rotting away the rest of their lives. Instead, they are making millions of dollars off of our tax money.
BTW, also remember it was the BUSH administration that gave them that bailout, shortly before they decided to embarrass the auto executives for thinking they were entitled to a governmental LOAN.
It’s bad enough that Bush let himself get suckered into the first bailout. Why did Obama keep piling on the taxpayer loot after that? I realize that New York is a Democrat state, that the financial industry overwhelmingly backs the Democratic Party these days and that New York’s and NYC’s governments are hosed without financial industry tax revenue, but seriously?
The government should have stepped aside and let Goldman Sachs and the rest of the crooks go bankrupt. That’s how capitalism is supposed to work!
CPAC gave the most votes to Ron Paul as their candidate for 2012 - should make for an interesting debate!
I also think it’s time to review some of those Bonus Contracts too and whoever made them in the first place. I’d like to watch that on C-SPAN along with Health Care Reform!
It is how capitalism works. And so is not interfering in their business, (example: guaranteeing loans for political purposes).
I’m all for regulations to keep bankers from playing these stupid games, but any bets on how much regulation will be made to prevent government interference in the banking system? My money’s on none.
@billdi, The large corporations are actually hurting now too. If a company needs capital to expand and can’t get it, needs help with health care and it isn’t provided, then it ends up either going bankrupt, laying off thousands of workers they can’t pay or trimming benefits that workers depend on. As you say, the people holding the purse strings and a few industries such as energy, insurance and health care determine our government. A healthy economy depends on healthy corporations with sensible management, sensible union representation, work hours and sensible money management.
maybe it’s time for the government and the banks to become kosher?
sometimes the bulls make money. sometimes the bears make money. the sheep and pigs always get slaughtered…
seriously folks, a lot of the regulations that were put in place after the 1929 disaster got thrown out at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one - things like separating investment banking from ordinary banking.
until the general public understands basic economics, we’re pretty much doomed to repeating the mistakes of old, with a few nice touches of our own.
on the other hand, even if the average voter did understand economics, it likely wouldn’t be enough to control the excesses of greed.
they weren’t kidding when they called it “the dismal science”…
(and if you think economics is depressing, try thermodynamics….)
Hey, Goldman Sachs got the best government they could buy and the best former member of their firm to spread the money around. Who could ask for anything more?… If you’re really unhappy, buy a few congressmen of your own. Otherwise be quiet and smile nicely and someone will throw you a few crumbs. You all obviously know your place. Here on the un-inter-esting-net with me.
ZEV: Like I said before they got put in, If you follow Hoover’s economic plans, you get the same depression. Really worse, cause the last time we dodn’t owe a Communist nation our GNP and we had a manufacturing base left over to rebuild an economy.
Way before Daily Show and Colbert came Garry Trudeau, the coolest guy in the world. Man, does he know how to go for the jugular or WHAT!!! hahahahahahaha, love him!!!
GT is satirizing not just the bankers (who get a big share of the Congressional pork) but also the President, who cynically rails against corporate greed even as he’s desperately counting on the banks to produce taxable income. GT’s satire also hits some of the commentators above: namely, those who don’t realize that when the banks took bailouts, they lost their “private” status (even though the biggest of them claim to have bought back that status with profits made from federal loans); and those who ignore Justice22’s reminder that the corporate crisis has to override Obama’s (and our) concern for justice. The hard truth–no doubt as intellectually repellent to our president as to GT–is that social justice is incompatible with robust capitalism, which understands only the laws of the jungle or the barnyard. And that’s where the pigs belong, not in the Oval Office.
Gary, I love what you do and write about, But why did you have to go and insult the poor PIG POPULATION of the farming community, what did THEY do to deserve this. These guys are VULTURES. and should be left to peck on ROAD KILL. Ed, Brooksville FL
I’m thinking seriously about retiring to someplace like Venezuela or Nicaragua. When you KNOW for an absolute fact the government and the wealthy are going to screw you every chance they get, with or without your vote, you can stop worrying about it and get on with life. Wait, I can do that right here. Never mind.
Kiba65 about 14 years ago
No such thing as a bill without pork attached!!!
parethed about 14 years ago
Sad fact of life is that most of our “honorable” reps (and senators) are oinkers as well…
pbarnrob about 14 years ago
See the Frontline about what wasn’t done to rein it in before it cratered, for years… Makes you want to cry, or throw things.
florchi about 14 years ago
Thanks for link pbarnrob.
In a Democracy, the people get the government they deserve - Alexis de Tocqueville (et al.)
iamthelorax about 14 years ago
Don’t get too mad at the execs, without getting mad at the government too. They are the ones who wrote that thing in such a hurry, filling it with their pork barrel spending, telling everyone there’s no time to lose.
If they took a bit more time analyzing the payout and less time slapping on special interest money, they may have been able to legally avoid paying bonuses.
pearlandpeach about 14 years ago
legally avoid paying bonuses: those funds were going to get paid one way or another….THEY wrote that law to get funds..”.legally avoid” would have left them laughing all the way to the bank.
mjlew01 about 14 years ago
The People in a democracy get the the govt they deserve. In a country where reality TV & American Idol are the most popular forms of entertianment. Beck, mannity and Osama bin limbaugh are huge. We get what we deserve. the parasites at Goldman-Sachs keep raping America and the Rightwing main stream media keep telling the sheep it’s the sheeps fault. AND THEY BELIEVE IT.
all-hail-hypnotoad about 14 years ago
oink you all!!
Justice22 about 14 years ago
Don’t worry, those bonuses have the same “trickle down effect” as the Bush tax cuts for the same wealthy CEOs. We have seen how those work. “The economy is healthy!”
rottmom about 14 years ago
While I agree the government has a responsibility to ensure this never happens again, I also have to say that just because you can, does not mean you should.
Those execs do have a moral obligation to NOT screw over the world’s economy just so they can make a few more dollars on their own portfolios. This isn’t about just getting a few more dollars back on your tax refund, they almost plunged the entire world into a deep, deep depression.
They should be sitting in a jail cell, rotting away the rest of their lives. Instead, they are making millions of dollars off of our tax money.
BTW, also remember it was the BUSH administration that gave them that bailout, shortly before they decided to embarrass the auto executives for thinking they were entitled to a governmental LOAN.
skybluesally about 14 years ago
mega laughs!! cheers gary!
billdi Premium Member about 14 years ago
we get the government that the multi-national corporations, banks, big oil, big coal, and the medical and pharmaceutical industries pay for.
Technojunkie about 14 years ago
It’s bad enough that Bush let himself get suckered into the first bailout. Why did Obama keep piling on the taxpayer loot after that? I realize that New York is a Democrat state, that the financial industry overwhelmingly backs the Democratic Party these days and that New York’s and NYC’s governments are hosed without financial industry tax revenue, but seriously?
The government should have stepped aside and let Goldman Sachs and the rest of the crooks go bankrupt. That’s how capitalism is supposed to work!
GJ_Jehosaphat about 14 years ago
CPAC gave the most votes to Ron Paul as their candidate for 2012 - should make for an interesting debate!
I also think it’s time to review some of those Bonus Contracts too and whoever made them in the first place. I’d like to watch that on C-SPAN along with Health Care Reform!
iamthelorax about 14 years ago
It is how capitalism works. And so is not interfering in their business, (example: guaranteeing loans for political purposes).
I’m all for regulations to keep bankers from playing these stupid games, but any bets on how much regulation will be made to prevent government interference in the banking system? My money’s on none.
Justice22 about 14 years ago
@billdi, The large corporations are actually hurting now too. If a company needs capital to expand and can’t get it, needs help with health care and it isn’t provided, then it ends up either going bankrupt, laying off thousands of workers they can’t pay or trimming benefits that workers depend on. As you say, the people holding the purse strings and a few industries such as energy, insurance and health care determine our government. A healthy economy depends on healthy corporations with sensible management, sensible union representation, work hours and sensible money management.
zev.farkas about 14 years ago
…but some are more equal than others…
maybe it’s time for the government and the banks to become kosher?
sometimes the bulls make money. sometimes the bears make money. the sheep and pigs always get slaughtered…
seriously folks, a lot of the regulations that were put in place after the 1929 disaster got thrown out at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one - things like separating investment banking from ordinary banking.
until the general public understands basic economics, we’re pretty much doomed to repeating the mistakes of old, with a few nice touches of our own.
on the other hand, even if the average voter did understand economics, it likely wouldn’t be enough to control the excesses of greed.
they weren’t kidding when they called it “the dismal science”…
(and if you think economics is depressing, try thermodynamics….)
freeholder1 about 14 years ago
Hey, Goldman Sachs got the best government they could buy and the best former member of their firm to spread the money around. Who could ask for anything more?… If you’re really unhappy, buy a few congressmen of your own. Otherwise be quiet and smile nicely and someone will throw you a few crumbs. You all obviously know your place. Here on the un-inter-esting-net with me.
freeholder1 about 14 years ago
ZEV: Like I said before they got put in, If you follow Hoover’s economic plans, you get the same depression. Really worse, cause the last time we dodn’t owe a Communist nation our GNP and we had a manufacturing base left over to rebuild an economy.
skiokanagan about 14 years ago
Great comic! Love it (as always).
marge201 about 14 years ago
Way before Daily Show and Colbert came Garry Trudeau, the coolest guy in the world. Man, does he know how to go for the jugular or WHAT!!! hahahahahahaha, love him!!!
cdhaley about 14 years ago
GT is satirizing not just the bankers (who get a big share of the Congressional pork) but also the President, who cynically rails against corporate greed even as he’s desperately counting on the banks to produce taxable income. GT’s satire also hits some of the commentators above: namely, those who don’t realize that when the banks took bailouts, they lost their “private” status (even though the biggest of them claim to have bought back that status with profits made from federal loans); and those who ignore Justice22’s reminder that the corporate crisis has to override Obama’s (and our) concern for justice. The hard truth–no doubt as intellectually repellent to our president as to GT–is that social justice is incompatible with robust capitalism, which understands only the laws of the jungle or the barnyard. And that’s where the pigs belong, not in the Oval Office.
James Lindley Premium Member about 14 years ago
Maybe if you fire up the barbecue they’ll get it.
CHIPS1930 about 14 years ago
Gary, I love what you do and write about, But why did you have to go and insult the poor PIG POPULATION of the farming community, what did THEY do to deserve this. These guys are VULTURES. and should be left to peck on ROAD KILL. Ed, Brooksville FL
CHIPS1930 about 14 years ago
I realy meant what I said 2 min. ago
ChiehHsia about 14 years ago
I’m thinking seriously about retiring to someplace like Venezuela or Nicaragua. When you KNOW for an absolute fact the government and the wealthy are going to screw you every chance they get, with or without your vote, you can stop worrying about it and get on with life. Wait, I can do that right here. Never mind.