More Post-Bailout Goodies

The Wall Street Journal assembled a panel of the worst offenders of the financial meltdown. A reasonable person might expect some contrition after all the damage that they did. Instead, they are asking for more deregulation and tax breaks. Read it and weep!

Berman, Dennis K. 2008. "Street's Demands May Stir Public Wrath." Wall Street Journal (14 October).

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s Lloyd Blankfein, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s James Dimon, Blackstone Group LP's Stephen Schwarzman, BlackRock Inc.'s Larry Fink and Silver Lake's Glenn Hutchins assembled for a panel session at the New York Stock Exchange last week organized in part by The Wall Street Journal. "To the 75 Wall Street titans there nodding in agreement, the discussion must have seemed banal. But any outsider, from Washington or the dismissed realms of "flyover country," would have been amazed at the goings-on."

"While America buckles in for years of sacrifice, the five chiefs took a different approach. The group pulled straight from the what-government-can-do-for-you school of 2006, lobbying for Wall Street tax breaks, the repeal of Sarbanes-Oxley and against the distraction of class-action lawsuits."

"Consider Blackstone's Mr. Schwarzman, who took on a wounded look, saying that none of the people on the panel had done anything wrong. "I don't see corruption in this room. ... Every bad actor in this drama has washed away," he said. "There's no one left in place"."

"Mr. Blankfein, meanwhile, shrugged off the idea that Wall Street could do much. The political system has gotten so tainted that "people like us may not lift their heads above the parapet to give ideas for fear that their heads may be shot off," the Goldman CEO said."