Bloomberg News just reported that "U.S. Senators John McCain and Maria Cantwell proposed reinstating the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act that split commercial and investment banking to rein in Wall Street firms in response to the financial crisis."
"Under our proposal, too-big-to-fail banks would be forced to return to the business of conventional banking, leaving the task of risk taking or management to others,” McCain said at a Washington news conference." Amen!
However, Wall Street will fight this proposal tooth and nail, because speculating with other people's money and being able to force the American taxpayer to eat and take all the risks but take none of the gains is what they do best. For example, while CEO of Citigroup in 2007, Vikram S. Pandit earned an annualized compensation of $3,164,320, which included a base salary of $250,000, stocks granted of $2,914,320, and options granted of $0. In 2008, he earned a total compensation of $38,237,437, which included a base salary of $958,333, stocks granted of $28,830,000, and options granted of $8,432,911. On February 11, 2009, Pandit testified to Congress that he had declared to his board of directors, "my salary should be $1 per year with no bonus until we return to profitability," having received $10.82 million in 2008 (base compensation and incentives). [Source: Slope of Hope}
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