Giuliani: Wall St bonuses help economy

[lemeeeplay]

Aren't you just glad this guy didn't become president?


http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/30/giuliani.corporate.bonuses/

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- Bonuses for Wall Street fat cats are easy political fodder in uncertain economic times, but former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Friday cutting corporate bonuses means slashing jobs in the Big Apple.


Rudy Giuliani says that when he was mayor, he gauged the New York City budget by Wall Street bonuses.

"If you somehow take that bonus out of the economy, it really will create unemployment," he said on CNN's "American Morning." "It means less spending in restaurants, less spending in department stores, so everything has an impact."
[..]
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[poyayan]

How about this. Give me all the bonus money and I guarantee I will spend every dime of it.

Sound like a good deal? Sound good to me definitely.

 

[Angrycat]

No problem. Wall Street will just pay the same amount to people but it'll all be called base compensation and not bonuses, so there won't be this outrage.

Face it, once government starts handing out money like candy people start figuring out ways to get a piece.

The mistake was bailing these failures in the first place.

 

[lemeeeplay]

Quote from Angrycat:

The mistake was bailing these failures in the first place.

Exactly!

Bailing out S&L during the 80s set a terrible precedence. These guys have been going to Washington for handouts ever since.

 

[swtrader]

here was his actual quote

"If you somehow take that bonus out of the economy, it really will create unemployment, like we had on 911" he said on CNN's "American Morning." "Just as everything changed on 911, It means less spending in restaurants, less spending in department stores, so everything has an impact, like 911, and the terrorists win"

 

[lemeeeplay]

Quote from swtrader:

here was his actual quote

"If you somehow take that bonus out of the economy, it really will create unemployment, like we had on 911" he said on CNN's "American Morning." "Just as everything changed on 911, It means less spending in restaurants, less spending in department stores, so everything has an impact, like 911, and the terrorists win"

Yeah I was cracking up over that. This guy will milk 9/11 for the rest of his life.

 

[Mvic]

Noonan had a great piece in the WSJ today, Guliani has GS Head!

 

[AAA30]

How many billions did NY firms pay out last year? And you do not think it will have an effect the local economy?

Now I don't think that bonuses are appropriate when the company is losing billions, but there’s still allot of earners in these banks that would walk if they did not receive their year end. Eliminating bonuses will have the same affect as the good bank/bad bank as the entire "Valuable employees" base moves to firms with no government imposed compensation limits. Not every one working at Citi was manufacturing MBS’s
.

 

[Landis82]

Quote from Mvic:

Noonan had a great piece in the WSJ today, Guliani has GS Head!

"I think there is an illness called Goldmansachs Head. I think it's in the DSM. When you have Goldmansachs Head, the party's never over. You take private planes to ask for bailout money, you entertain customers at high-end spas while your writers prep your testimony, you take and give huge bonuses as the company tanks. When you take the kids camping, you bring a private chef. Goldmansachs Head is Bernie Madoff complaining he's feeling cooped up in the penthouse. It is the delusion that the old days continue and the old ways prevail and you, Prince of the Abundance, can just keep rolling along. Here is how you know if someone has GSH: He has everything but a watch. He doesn't know what time it is.

I remember the father in the movie script of "Dr. Zhivago," inviting what's left of his family, huddled in rooms in what had been their mansion, picking up the stump of a stogie and inviting them to watch the lighting of "the last cigar in Moscow."

When you have GSH, you never think it's the last cigar.

Peggy Noonan, WSJ, January 30th, 09

 

[Anaconda]

Quote from AAA30:

How many billions did NY firms pay out last year? And you do not think it will have an effect the local economy?

You act like the money just disappears if not paid in bonuses. I should not even have to list some of the ways it gets spent but here u go:

1) Dividends
2) Cap Ex
3) New hires

The Giuliani argument is one of a first grader.

Now I don't think that bonuses are appropriate when the company is losing billions, but there’s still allot of earners in these banks that would walk if they did not receive their year end. Eliminating bonuses will have the same affect as the good bank/bad bank as the entire "Valuable employees" base moves to firms with no government imposed compensation limits. Not every one working at Citi was manufacturing MBS’s

Oh please. Most of these guys are leeches and nothing more. Any true performer would earn on his own or at another (profitable) firm. In fact, I wonder why anyone who has any true value and real earning power would be at any firm seeking a bailout.

The firms in question are failures. Period. It simply does not matter how great one individual may have been at the firm, because it's about the firm, not the individual. Without bailout money, these guys would not even have a salary or job, let alone a bonus. They need to STFU and realize that their bonus is paid by those who are complaining, and against their will. And, if they are true producers, they need to move on to greener pastures.