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Something about this bailout frenzy is beginning to grate.
$700 Billion to bailout Wall Street? I certainly understand the importance of saving jobs and homes. I’m all for that. People are really suffering out there. But when I see articles like this, I wonder, what have we done?
$700 Billion to bailout Wall Street? I certainly understand the importance of saving jobs and homes. I’m all for that. People are really suffering out there. But when I see articles like this, I wonder, what have we done?
George White writes:
Wall Street banks won't use bailout money for bonuses
After weeks of pressure from politicians about using bailout money to pay out year-end bonuses, Wall Street banks are preparing to tell Congress that they won't use the recent $125 billion government cash infusion for compensation, but only for shoring up their balance sheets and acquisitions. That, however, doesn't mean the estimated $108 billion set aside for bonuses and compensation in 2008 won't be going out though.
According to a Financial Times report the largest nine U.S. banks -- Bank of America Corp., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Citigroup Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley, State Street Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. -- will pay bonuses from company earnings and their existing cash resources, as in prior years.
Whether legislators will see the distinction remains to be seen.
Banks are slowly being put under siege over the issue of their bonus pools, with the leaders from both the House of Representatives and the Senate critical of the banks' intention to hand out billions in bonus money following the passage of the $700 billion bailout package. The FT said that lawyers from the nine banks that received the initial $125 billion of government funds are holding meeting to gameplan a response to the criticism of the bonus pool. Expect to see the financial services sector start to vigorously present its case in coming weeks as a relatively unpopular bailout package and the end of the hotly contested presidential election threatens to turn political pressure into a full-blown PR nightmare for the banks as Congress and the cable networks find themselves with plenty of free time.
Um……WHY ARE WE EVEN DEBATING THIS? If you lose BILLIONS of dollars, so much so that you require a taxpayer financed BAILOUT, why would you even THINK about a bonus?!
But here’s what really grates. Right now the biggest crisis in our country isn’t the financial capital crisis. It is the HUMAN capital crisis. It’s simmering just below the surface; hidden because we are still the wealthiest nation on the planet, but it is a crisis, if left unchecked, that could make the current crisis look relatively mild by comparison.
We have approximately 50 Million students in our schools today. It is the largest and most diverse student population in the history of our nation. But here are some statistics to consider:
For every 100 ninth grader…
68 graduate on time.
Of those, 40 enroll in college…
27 are still in college the following year.
Of those, 18 earn an Associate’s degree within 3 years…
or a Bachelor’s degree within six years.
What this means is that 8 out of 10 of our nation’s ninth grade students will NOT earn an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree.
There numbers are staggering. And just what exactly are we going to do with the 80% who do not obtain college diplomas in a value-driven, knowledge-based global economy? Who is going to hire them? GM, Chrysler or Ford? Don’t think so. They may not even be around next year, and if they are, the workforce will be very different and far more specialized.
Think Bank of America would take some of that bailout money and hire them?
We’ve got to wake up and realize that we are on the verge of creating a functionally illiterate, virtually unemployable permanent underclass. This is not speculation, this is happening right now while we focus on banks and brokerage firms.
But think about all the good we could do if we funneled $700 Billion into our schools instead? Our schools should be models of innovation and 21st century learning, not poorly funded, ill-equipped, barely functioning institutional and instructional relics. A quality education should be the right of every child in this country. But right now, that “right” is largely determined by a child’s zip code. An investment in education is an investment in our future—our collective future. It is something that could yield benefits, from Wall Street to Main Street, for generations.
So while we’re busy throwing around billions of dollars, maybe we could throw a few to our struggling public schools. I mean, God-forbid our bankers have to forego a bonus this year.
How ever would they survive?
According to a Financial Times report the largest nine U.S. banks -- Bank of America Corp., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Citigroup Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley, State Street Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. -- will pay bonuses from company earnings and their existing cash resources, as in prior years.
Whether legislators will see the distinction remains to be seen.
Banks are slowly being put under siege over the issue of their bonus pools, with the leaders from both the House of Representatives and the Senate critical of the banks' intention to hand out billions in bonus money following the passage of the $700 billion bailout package. The FT said that lawyers from the nine banks that received the initial $125 billion of government funds are holding meeting to gameplan a response to the criticism of the bonus pool. Expect to see the financial services sector start to vigorously present its case in coming weeks as a relatively unpopular bailout package and the end of the hotly contested presidential election threatens to turn political pressure into a full-blown PR nightmare for the banks as Congress and the cable networks find themselves with plenty of free time.
Um……WHY ARE WE EVEN DEBATING THIS? If you lose BILLIONS of dollars, so much so that you require a taxpayer financed BAILOUT, why would you even THINK about a bonus?!
But here’s what really grates. Right now the biggest crisis in our country isn’t the financial capital crisis. It is the HUMAN capital crisis. It’s simmering just below the surface; hidden because we are still the wealthiest nation on the planet, but it is a crisis, if left unchecked, that could make the current crisis look relatively mild by comparison.
We have approximately 50 Million students in our schools today. It is the largest and most diverse student population in the history of our nation. But here are some statistics to consider:
For every 100 ninth grader…
68 graduate on time.
Of those, 40 enroll in college…
27 are still in college the following year.
Of those, 18 earn an Associate’s degree within 3 years…
or a Bachelor’s degree within six years.
What this means is that 8 out of 10 of our nation’s ninth grade students will NOT earn an Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree.
There numbers are staggering. And just what exactly are we going to do with the 80% who do not obtain college diplomas in a value-driven, knowledge-based global economy? Who is going to hire them? GM, Chrysler or Ford? Don’t think so. They may not even be around next year, and if they are, the workforce will be very different and far more specialized.
Think Bank of America would take some of that bailout money and hire them?
We’ve got to wake up and realize that we are on the verge of creating a functionally illiterate, virtually unemployable permanent underclass. This is not speculation, this is happening right now while we focus on banks and brokerage firms.
But think about all the good we could do if we funneled $700 Billion into our schools instead? Our schools should be models of innovation and 21st century learning, not poorly funded, ill-equipped, barely functioning institutional and instructional relics. A quality education should be the right of every child in this country. But right now, that “right” is largely determined by a child’s zip code. An investment in education is an investment in our future—our collective future. It is something that could yield benefits, from Wall Street to Main Street, for generations.
So while we’re busy throwing around billions of dollars, maybe we could throw a few to our struggling public schools. I mean, God-forbid our bankers have to forego a bonus this year.
How ever would they survive?
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1 comment:
You are absolutely on target. I have been yelling these same thing at the television as I watch the news. We are focused on and worried about things that have already failed. We need to focus on what we can change and add value to that might make us succeed. I hate seeing us throw good money after bad to try to make things right!
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