Are Georgians getting Bonuses from Wall Street Bailout?

October 16, 5:02 PMGwinnett County Democrat ExaminerAlisa Smith-McMahon

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Yesterday, the DOW broke 10,000, and Georgia is still sitting at a 10.1% unemployment rate. And here’s the kicker…most of the banks and financial institutions who were bailed out last year, are recording record-breaking profits each quarter. And they’re not doing it by lending us money, like they were supposed to. Of course, how could we expect them to do that? We didn’t put any sort of regulation in place to “force,” or even “encourage” them to do so. They’re doing it just like they did before the recession. They’re speculating on stocks and bonds and collecting fees from us. So, these companies are continuing to do exactly what they did to get us into this recession, and they’re not using the money they were loaned for anything good, only continued evil.

So here we are, at the beginning of the final quarter of the year, and its just about time for bonuses to come to those who deserve them. And of course, the biggies like AIG, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America are right in line and ready to dole out the cash. Will you or I be getting any of that money? NOPE! Have any of us been able to get a loan from any of these bailed-out companies? NOPE!

From a CBS news story on Thursday, Goldman Sachs chief financial officer, David Viniar, told reporters he hoped the bonuses would not attract too much attention. "I would prefer people to focus on the business rather than the bonuses," he said. "I think it's too big a focus, I don't know when it will die down."

Are you kidding me? He doesn’t know when it will die down? I don’t know when it’s going to get loud! If there’s anything we should be screaming about as a united country, it’s the continuing failing practices of Wall Street after they’ve been given a chance to change. We need to be screaming about the fact that they are continuing to practice business in the way that is beneficial to only them, and not to the rest of the country. And don’t get me wrong, I’m all for capitalism. I want my shot at making a million too. But, when an entire industry continues to do the things that ran this country’s economic system into the ground, something has to change.

Here’s another laughable statement from the CBS report from CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein. The company is aware of its public relations problem: The CEO has instructed employees to avoid conspicuous displays of consumption, and the company announced Thursday that it would donate $200 million to charity. (While that's clearly a lot of money, it's also less than Goldman made in the average week this quarter.)

Guess what Lloyd, all the rest of us are avoiding conspicuous displays of consumption too. “Why,” you ask. Because we don’t have any money with which to consume things! It’s amazing how easily you can avoid those displays when you don’t have the money to fund them. Lest you forget Lloyd, you wouldn’t even have a company from which to dole out those bonuses if it weren’t for our tax money. Can we show a little restraint, so as not to tick off the poor people?

And believe me, I’m not happy with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s little entourage from Goldman Sachs either. I can only assume that we, the Democrats, have not worked harder to put those regulations in place because we’ve got “friends” on the inside. Let’s just say that President Obama had better step in and straighten this one out before the uprising begins. Because I can’t imagine it’s going to be much longer.

Here is a little voice of reason for you from Michael Moore and Dylan Ratigan from a Today Show interview with Matt Lauer. And let’s be truthful about Michael Moore for just a minute. This man has spent his entire career fighting for people like you and me. If you don’t agree with his statements in this interview, you must be one of those people getting a bonus from Goldman Sachs.