Simon Johnson: "What he's basically saying is business as usual. Go about your daily lives. Get the bonuses. Re-brand them as awards. But it really shows you the arrogance, and I think these people think that they've won. They think it's over. They think it's won. They think that we're going to pay out ten or 20 percent of GDP to basically make them whole. It's astonishing."
Bill Moyers: "Why wouldn't they believe that? I mean, when I watched the eight CEOs testify before Congress at the House Financial Services Committee earlier this week, I had just finished reading a report that almost every member of that Committee had received contributions from those banks last year. I mean in a way that's like paying the cop on the beat not to arrest you, right?"
Simon Johnson: "I called up one of my friends on Capitol Hill after that testimony, and that session. I said, "What happened? This was your moment. Why did they pull their punches like that?" And my friend said, "They, the Committee members, know the bankers too well."
Bill Moyers: "Last year, the securities and investment industry made $146 million in campaign contributions. Commercial banks another $34 million. I mean, American taxpayers don't have a flea's chance on a dog like that, do they?"
Simon Johnson: "It's a massive problem, obviously. And I do think, though, the good news there are people in the White House - I think the president himself, is aware of this broader issue. And, obviously, the...Obama campaign was very good at getting small contributions, and trying to minimize the impact of major donors like that."
"But, at the same time, these people are throughout the system of government. They are very much at the forefront of the Treasury. The Treasury is apparently calling the shots on their economic policies. This is a decisive moment. Either you break the power or we're stuck for a long time with this arrangement."
Bill Moyers: "When Tim Geithner said, earlier in the week, that the American people have lost faith in some financial institutions and the government, did it occur to you that this was the same man who was president of the New York Fed through much of this debacle?"
Simon Johnson: "I have no problem with poachers turning gamekeeper, right? So if you know where the bodies are buried maybe you can help us sort out the problem. And I did think the first three or four minutes of what Mr. Geithner said were very good."
"As a definition of a problem, and pointing the finger clearly at the bankers, and saying that the government had been slow to react, and, of course, that included himself. I liked that. And then he started to talk about the specifics. And he said, "The compensation caps we've put in place, for the executives of these banks, are strong." And at that point I just fell out of my chair. That is not true. That is factually inaccurate, in my opinion."
"That this $500,000 limit, and deferred stock, is some kind of restriction on what they do? It's deferred stock, Bill. It's not restricted. You can get as much stock as you want, as soon as you pay back the government, you can cash out of that."
"Second, you can, sorry to get technical, but reset the strike price. This is something you and your viewers, you need to hear this one out. Just look for these words, okay, follow them through the press. When you get into trouble, when your company goes down, and you have massive amounts of stock options that aren't worth much anymore, because the stock price has gone down, you say, "Oh, well, we're going to reset our option prices."
"And, basically, it means that, at the end of the day, these people are going to walk away with tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars paid for by basically, [the] insurance policy that you and I are providing."
"Think of it like this, our taxpayer money is ensuring their bonuses. We're making sure that [these] companies [and] banks survive. And eventually, of course, the economy will turn around. Things will get better. The banks will be worth a lot of money. And they will cash out. And we and our children will be paying higher taxes so those people could have those bonuses. That's not fair. It's not acceptable. It's not even good economics."
The greatness of any leader whether in the White House or serving in Congress doesn't just happen but are created by the citizens they lead. It all depends on us now, the electorate. What will we allow them to get away with this time? As the electorate we hold the ultimate power. We can, if we decided to, replace nearly every member of Congress, many of whom have been in Washington far too long and are too entangled with the power elite. We now have in position a President we believe has the makings to be a great leader but will we help him achieve this by calling it forth so that this time we are not disappointed?
So I ask you, my fellow Americans, are we chumps?
Our President and Washington need to hear from us in numbers to great to be ignored and through every means possible; letters, emails, phone calls, and marches. This is our America too and we needn't take this lying down any longer. "Shaft" was only a movie it doesn't need to be the real thing.
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