Why The Bonuses Make People Angry

by: Chris Bowers

Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 14:00


Here is the lalalalalalalalalalala response to the AIG bonuses from the administration:

"People are not sitting around their kitchen tables thinking about AIG," Axelrod said. "They are thinking about their own jobs."

Wow.  That is a lot of cognitive dissonance, given that President Obama himself said that people were "right to be angry, I'm angry," over the bonuses. Are people angry, or don't they care?  Depends on if you are listening to President Obama or to his senior advisors, I guess.

Look, people are angry about their jobs, and their health care, and they are taking out that anger on the bonuses. It is a fairly simple causality chain that should be obvious to any political observer:

  1. People are pissed about the economy being in a recession, because it makes their lives worse.
  2. People blame Wall Street for the recession. They are right to do this--it ain't a secret who caused the problems we face.
  3. People don't like that, to fix the recession, more government money is being spent on Wall Street than on average Americans.
  4. When Wall Street grows even richer as a result of the bailout, but the lives of average Americans are only getting worse despite the bailout, then it makes most people really, really, really fucking angry.
Americans aren't mad at the bonuses in and of themselves. Americans are angry about the bonuses because they are angry about the recession. Because they are angry at Wall Street. Because they are angry at the bailout. The specific anger at the bonuses is just a vehicle for other, broader anger right now. To not recognize this is an extraordinary level of tone-deafness. There is a direct, obvious connection between anger over the bonuses and people being worried about their jobs.

As much as many political observers like to think otherwise, people are not dumb. Right now, Americans can quickly draw a connection between their economic condition and people on Wall Street getting rich. If you think that people are sitting around saying "I am worried about my job, so I wish people would stop talking about Wall Street getting rich, because I see no connection between the two whatsoever," then you are just blind. Worse, you have basically turned into the same people who defended the Bush administration for losing $12 billion in cash in Iraq, because supposedly that wasn't really much money.

Americans are pissed about the bonuses because they are pissed about the recession. Because they are pissed at Wall Street. Because they are pissed a a bailout they were told was necessary, but that only seems to helping make the rich get richer. If that isn't obvious to you, it should be. Democrats and progressives are screwed if we don't catch this populist wave.
Chris Bowers :: Why The Bonuses Make People Angry

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Why The Bonuses Make People Angry | 32 comments
Exactly. Send it to them. (4.00 / 3)
Somebody email this to Obama, Axelrod and Biden.

Chris says it s much better than I do.

Oh Yeah FOUR

Change
"We must break up the banks and never again let them get so big that they distort our politics and take down the economy.

these companies reward other companies for cutting jobs and outsourcing all the time -- (4.00 / 6)
--they downgrade or upgrade their ratings on all stocks based on quarterly profit and cost-cutting. JPMorgan and Goldman can cause other companies -- that actually does create products and hire many people -- to lose or gain tons with just a word.

they directly harm us all -- and giving them billions and billions more means that they're just all the more empowered and strengthened to keep on doing it.

that they're actually inside -- writing legislation and buying officials -- makes it all even worse.

we all know this. they're not at all "vital" and our "financial system" never acts in our interests but against them by intention.

today--FedEx announces more jobcuts, & "FedEx shares rose $1.97, or 4.6 percent to $45.02 in late afternoon trading." (4.00 / 1)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponlin... --
... Now FedEx plans to cut more jobs -- although it didn't say how many. It also plans to reduce some workers' hours and wages. The company will also trim air and truck capacity. FedEx hopes to save about $1 billion with the cuts in fiscal 2010, which starts in June.
...
Standard & Poor's analyst Jim Corridore still thinks FedEx is in a good position to take advantage of an economic recovery, despite worse-than-expected demand and pricing in the third-quarter. He reiterated his ''Buy'' rating on FedEx, noting the stock has already been battered by negative economic news. Shares lost about 39 percent in the fiscal third quarter.

FedEx shares rose $1.97, or 4.6 percent to $45.02 in late afternoon trading.

This is what they're pouring trillions into and propping up.

[ Parent ]
this is what emanuel and axelrod are all about: managing public opinion (4.00 / 6)
rather than representing it.  

And they'll fight very, very hard trying to marginalize us, telling us what we think is important despite the exact opposite and trying to cloud the clarity ... and the opportunity for unity of the citizenry this matter offers (almost every citizen of all political ilks is outraged about this) ... that this provides to these corrupt relationships between the wall street interests and their government.  emanuel and axelrod will fight tooth and nail (especially scumbag traitor emanuel, do you think that he wants some light shined on the nexus between wall street and the government with all the money that he made in such a short time on wall street once he left the clinton administration?)  becoz they are afraid that if we get our way and get these enemies to a representative government, geithner and summers, removed from obama's administration, then we will always want our way ... and think that we can get it.  Essentially, we will expect a government that represents us rather than one in which we just have to be happy with whatever they decide we get.  That's the clarity of it all.

That's how they think and that tells you a lot about them ... especially emanuel who is a HUGE barrier between us and representative government ... they don't want the government to respond to the people, they want it to work for them and their immoral friends.  So, that's why they do not want the government to "give us our way" ... becoz then we will always expect the government to actually represent and respond to us ... like a representative government is supposed to ... and not settle for whatever crumbs of representation these scumbag powerbrokers drop from their table.

Z    

their whole f'ing game is ... (0.00 / 0)
... to get what they and their rich pals, who bankroll them into power, want while deceiving us into thinking that they are doing for us the best they can.

Z

[ Parent ]
all these cynical political operators/manipulators ... (0.00 / 0)
... try to define us ... to us ... in as few of variables as they can becoz it makes us easier to manipulate.  the religious right is particularly vulnerable on this becoz they are single variable ... abortion ... voters.  

the political reptiles do not recognize .. nor want to recognize ... nor want us to recognize ... that we can be mad about BOTH our economic situation AND the aig bonuses.  and a bunch of other stuff that is connected like the corruption of a government that does not represent us to the point that they hand over our money to people that steal from us so that they can steal more from us.  

And we can make these connections david and rahm ... instead of being manipulated by a single variable.

Z  

[ Parent ]
Alexrod is wrong...way wrong. (4.00 / 2)
I don't know anybody who isn't talking about this issue one way or another.  Even people concerned about their own economics are comparing/constrating their situation to the AIG bonusees.

I can imagine the only people not concerned about this issue are people who do not have economic concerns of their own.  And there aren't too many of those folks left.

Older Americans are VERY pissed (4.00 / 6)
There are people who will not be able to retire for years because the Wall Street Raptors blew up their retirement nest eggs, and there are retired people who are essentially earning nothing on their savings.  I'm lucky to have a pension, but the vast majority isn't so lucky.

These people, who vote in large numbers, are VERY, VERY pissed that the people who blew up the financial system now seem to be calling the shots and we are getting screwed.

Josh Marshall is really right about this--it is the appearance of impotence of Geithner, Summers and even Obama that is so frightening and depressing and infuriating here.  Emmanuel's buddies better see that they are in danger of killing what's left of the golden goose.  

As I said in another thread, it goes way, way beyond the bonuses.  We need very high tax rates on all income over $1 million and we need to kill the 15% rate for dividends.  We need a payroll tax holiday (preferably permanent) for workers and a boost in Social Security for recipients who have no or little other income.  

Bastille day is July 14, and we need to see some real regulatory and tax reform by then.
 

John McCain--He's not who you think he is.

[ Parent ]
This Is Just A Potent Reminder (4.00 / 8)
That none of these guys are nearly as smart and savvy as they think they are.

They beat John fricken McCain for gosh sakes, a man who both openly admitted and vividly demonstrated that he knows absolutely nothing about the economy.  (And now his daughter is showing that he's only #2 in political brains in his own nuclear family.)

Facing a certified idiot is one thing.  Facing reality?  Takes a bit of an upgrade.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

I was in a restaurant last night (4.00 / 8)
And the guys at the bar were yelling and cussing about the bonuses for what must have been forty minutes.

Yes, people are sitting around, angry about AIG.  They understand--as any child would--how patently unfair it is that economy-ruining scumbags get millions while they get laid off.

If you're reading this blog, Mr. Axelrod, please take note.

Spitzer: "Workers around the country are being asked to take pay cuts and accept shorter work weeks so that colleagues won't be laid off. Why can't Wall Street royalty shoulder some of the burden?" (4.00 / 8)
http://www.slate.com/id/2213942/ --
... From raising taxes-income taxes to sales taxes-to properly reopening labor contracts, we are all being asked to pitch in and carry our share of the burden. Workers around the country are being asked to take pay cuts and accept shorter work weeks so that colleagues won't be laid off. Why can't Wall Street royalty shoulder some of the burden? Why did Goldman have to get back 100 cents on the dollar? Didn't we already give Goldman a $25 billion capital infusion, and aren't they sitting on more than $100 billion in cash? Haven't we been told recently that they are beginning to come back to fiscal stability? If that is so, couldn't they have accepted a discount, and couldn't they have agreed to certain conditions before the AIG dollars-that is, our dollars-flowed?

The appearance that this was all an inside job is overwhelming. AIG was nothing more than a conduit for huge capital flows to the same old suspects, with no reason or explanation.   ...


This is a very, very important opportunity ... (0.00 / 0)
... to make this government begin to represent us and force them to fire these enemies to representative government that obama has appointed, summers and geithner ... for now.  And what it needs is a critical mass of people behind the words.  It needs demonstrations with a simple message that brings this into full clarity:  GEITHNER AND SUMMERS, GET OUT OF OUR GOVERNMENT!  

That is what this issue is all about, about obama making appointments of people who obviously are not in the business of representing us.  They need to go, and we need to force them out ... and once we do, he will not be able to appoint a bunch of wall street stooges to take their place with the political price he will have paid for them and also the focus that this will bring upon his future economic appointments.

obama is still redeemable, but he needs to be forced to represent us and not embrace the new democrat/dlc corporatist ways that he seems to be so comfortably inclined to.  And we need to hit him with that force right now while the rage is still boiling hot and this unifying issue is in the public's consciousness.  

We need to mobilize and hit his political team, that is much more interested in managing public opinion than representing it, while they are on their heels ... while it has gotten ahead of them and they are least able to manage it.  This doesn't involve anything illegal, it just involves putting faces and physical mass to this almost universal disgust of the beltway's ways.  We have to be seen to be heard.

I don't know of the complexity of the logistics of getting a nationwide demonstration together (I assume that organized labor would be the first place to start), but the sooner we can get people on the streets demonstrating ... this weekend? ... the better chance we have to get some traction on this foothold of universal citizen disgust and actually get change.

Z      

AIG Bonuses (4.00 / 2)
People are getting pissed because thet believe they are getting screwed again. We Americans have a broad and deep streak of fairness running thru our psyche. The bonuses make the B.S. alarms go off loudly. The White House and Congress better clearly get this.
Also, this energy could be channeled for more change, especially in regulation of financial companies. This may be a great opprtunity.
The bomb yet to go off (4.00 / 4)
If we could get our hands on the list of AIG counterparties, I'll wager that we'd discover that it isn't just our five largest banks which are insolvent; it's the United States itself. For both political and economic reasons -- serious reasons, as in the end of American hegemony serious -- we have to pay up, and we can't.

That's the real dirty secret. I'm not sure that the working class understands yet just how much worse it is than even we are telling them; the ones I talk to -- and I make an attempt to talk to them -- are still blaming the Mexicans first and the bankers second.

Of course, I do live in Arizona. Maybe Ohioans are more astute.

we've been nation in deficit for ages -- & the current system is designed to harm and impoverish us worker bees anyway -- (4.00 / 1)
that it's being propped up, while we're supposed to sacrifice and make "tough choices", etc, shows all of us what their priorities are.

as long as we can print money and other countries will buy our bonds and stuff, we're not insolvent.

the cost, tho, of keeping this system alive and functioning has been harming us for decades -- our standard of living, opportunities, jobs, resources, infrastructure, etc -- all in decline for a long time now.

[ Parent ]
The identity of the counterparties (0.00 / 0)

as long as we can print money and other countries will buy our bonds and stuff, we're not insolvent.

As long as.... Yes, that's the point, isn't it?

[ Parent ]
that's different from Wall St and what the companies we're shoveling billions and billions to do -- (0.00 / 0)
that our govt is devoted to rewarding these companies and propping them up -- when they're not the economy, or even vital to it, and in fact profit by hurting the real economy -- which is 70% consumer spending -- is the problem.

that the fed can print money and set rates, etc, like the bank of england and others, is not the "financial system" that's hurting us and being rewarded here.

[ Parent ]
Galbraith is good on that part -- a great piece on all this by him: No Return to Normal -- (4.00 / 1)
http://www.washingtonmonthly.c...

... There is no way the project of resurrecting the economy by stuffing the banks with cash will work. Effective policy can only work the other way around. ...

The chorus of deficit hawks and entitlement reformers are certain to regard this program with horror. What about the deficit? What about the debt? These questions are unavoidable, so let's answer them. First, the deficit and the public debt of the U.S. government can, should, must, and will increase in this crisis. They will increase whether the government acts or not. The choice is between an active program, running up debt while creating jobs and rebuilding America, or a passive program, running up debt because revenues collapse, because the population has to be maintained on the dole, and because the Treasury wishes, for no constructive reason, to rescue the big bankers and make them whole.

Second, so long as the economy is placed on a path to recovery, even a massive increase in public debt poses no risk that the U.S. government will find itself in the sort of situation known to Argentines and Indonesians. Why not? Because the rest of the world recognizes that the United States performs certain indispensable functions, including acting as the lynchpin of collective security and a principal source of new science and technology. So long as we meet those responsibilities, the rest of the world is likely to want to hold our debts.

Third, in the debt deflation, liquidity trap, and global crisis we are in, there is no risk of even a massive program generating inflation or higher long-term interest rates. That much is obvious from current financial conditions: interest rates on long-maturity Treasury bonds are amazingly low. Those rates also tell you that the markets are not worried about financing Social Security or Medicare. They are more worried, as I am, that the larger economic outlook will remain very bleak for a long time.
...


[ Parent ]
note: bill to tax bonuses just passed US House (4.00 / 2)
http://www.congressmatters.com...

2:44 328-93, it's passed!

2:47 GOP split 85-87, and it sends the CSPAN callers over the edge! "Impeach the whole Congress!" HAHAHAHAHA!

all these cynical political operators/manipulators ... (0.00 / 0)
.. try to define us ... to us ... in as few of variables as they can becoz it makes us easier to manipulate.  the religious right is particularly vulnerable on this becoz they are single variable ... abortion ... voters.  

the political reptiles do not recognize .. nor want to recognize ... nor want us to recognize ... that we can be mad about BOTH our economic situation AND the aig bonuses.  and a bunch of other stuff that is connected like the corruption of a government that does not represent us to the point that they hand over our money to people that steal from us so that they can steal more from us.  

And we can make these connections david and rahm ... instead of being manipulated by a single variable.

Z  

Excellent chain of logic, Chris. (4.00 / 1)
Convincing.
The average person knows who the Bad Guys are (4.00 / 4)
Coincidentally, we constitute governments to protect us from the Bad Guys, and dissolve them when they don't.
Which people aren't dumb? (4.00 / 2)
Would that be the American people you're talking about?

The American people who, according to polls, don't accept the theory of evolution?

The American people that helped send Bush to the White House twice?

The American people that turned a blind eye to Gitmo and illegal wiretapping?

If people are angry, it is because the media has been repeating a simple-minded, easily digestible morality tale non-stop the last several days.  It isn't because they're suddenly smart, just because they agree with your opinion this time.


when we don't have jobs, we wise up fast -- when it hits home -- (4.00 / 2)
the media is also endlessly repeating the administration's lies (fed them from the very companies who are pocketing our money) that these few companies are vital and we have to give them billions -- or else the whole world collapses -- people aren't buying that in any way.
[ Parent ]
"the overriding administration view -- is possible only if one thinks that the way the financial industry functions is perfectly fine and normal and doesn't need any changing" (0.00 / 0)
Greenwald -- http://www.salon.com/opinion/g...

... You can't spend six months frightening people by warning them that they're headed into a Great Depression and then be surprised when they're "outraged" that hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money are being shoveled into the pockets of those who helped bring the situation about.  The belief that nobody cares -- which does seem to be the overriding administration view -- is possible only if one thinks that the way the financial industry functions is perfectly fine and normal and doesn't need any changing. ...

And I thought Axelrod was the voice of reason (4.00 / 1)
I don't expect much from Emanuel.  But if I was a betting man, I would have been betting that Axelrod was privately begging Obama to dump Geithner and get further out in front of the populist tsunami.
.
This is Obama's Katrina.  Maybe he can eat cake and play guitar with Geithner in a nice photo-op.
axelrod does not sound like a guy that desires change ... (0.00 / 0)
... when he is in defiant denial of an environment that is conducive to it.

Z

[ Parent ]
he was supposed to Obama's Rove, no? (0.00 / 0)
we see now he's totally not -- and sending Obama out of town this week is just asinine.
[ Parent ]
I'm actually shocked (4.00 / 1)
I am no babe in the woods that believed the b.s. that Obama was secretly a super-liberal who was going to come out once elected.  I always knew that Obama had a soft-spot for business (power) and Chicago-school economic theories.

But I always thought that when conservative economic theory bumped up against reality (i.e. when even Alan Greenspan is confessing his disappointment that the market can't actually self-regulate) that Obama would be among the first to cast aside ideology, roll up his sleeves, and do the right thing.

His quote the other day about being "choked up with outrage"?  I swear, that joking-about-a-serious-national-crisis moment was straight out of George Bush's playbook.

Obama's still pretty young.  He hasn't been wealthy or successful for that long.  I am actually shocked that he isn't genuinely outraged about this stuff.  His "I feel your pain" moments feel so calculated.  So phony.

[ Parent ]
not me or many millions of others -- (0.00 / 0)
it was never a secret here in NY about all his Wall St/hedge fund/Pritzker/etc $$$.

And he never was the first choice of Unions or real workers -- or anyone who actually needs real things from govt.

-- and no one who really threatens the status quo (or "changes" it) is ever allowed anywhere near the WH.

He was to the right of Hillary on all domestic issues, for God's sake.

[ Parent ]
Respectfully, you're still off target a bit (0.00 / 0)
Hey all. New here, so go easy. Anyway, I watched the whole AIG hearing yesterday and Liddy himself said more than once that the Fed has been his sole point of contact with the government. It's the Fed that is holding all the cards. I'm not saying Geithner didn't know but it was Bernanke who was the main architecht of the original AIG bailout. The Fed can do whatever they want, because no one has authority over them and there's no way to access information they don't want to share--for ANYONE in the government. The rep from the GAO said herself in testimony yesterday that they are forbidden access to anything related to Fed monetary policy, which pretty much means the Fed doesn't have to say shit to anyone. And they don't.

Also, Liddy said yesterday that if AIG is able to pack back any money, the Fed gets paid back FIRST (for money it gets to simply type into AIG's account) before Treasury gets their TARP funds back (money that's taken from the sweat and blood of actual workers). Nice.

. (0.00 / 0)
Those townhalls Obama held were just SEETHING with AIG rage. I mean those people were so pissed that they didn't even talk about it.
Why The Bonuses Make People Angry | 32 comments
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