If you thought the long winter of Wall Street bonuses was over, think again. Americans will likely weather much more than the six weeks of additional bleakness Punxsutawney Phil predicted, as failed Wall Street firm AIG announced plans to pay out $100 million in bonuses yesterday.
Meanwhile, the top six banks are on track to pay out $140.5 billion in bonuses to their 'top bankers' for 2009. All this while Americans across the country are still losing their homes, and one out of every ten workers is unemployed.
This ludicrous amount of bonus money equates to roughly $68 million an hour, which if it wasn't being used to pad the overstuffed pockets of bankster CEOs could...
- eliminate nearly every state budget gap
- extend unemployment benefits for every American out of work, and
- purchase health insurance for 29 million Americans.
MSN Money takes banker bonuses head on today, advocating for the same tough new rules to rein in bank greed that SEIU and thousands of Americans continue to call for. "Banks have unlimited money to reward themselves, but they have no interest in lifting up the country that helped them," said SEIU's Stephen Lerner in the piece.
He's right. AIG, for example, has decided to rewarding themselves with lavish bonuses after helping sink our financial system into crisis--all while still owing the government $120.7 billion of its bailout! Read the full article--and then take action to rein in Wall Street pay.
