FAILURE + BONUS = WALL ST. CAPITALISM

It's this kind of talk that tells me the people on Wall Street are not only morally bankrupt, but simply clueless:

“I think President Obama painted everyone with a broad stroke,” said Brian McCaffrey, 55, a Wall Street lawyer who was on his way to see a client. “The way we pay our taxes is bonuses. The only way that we’ll get any of our bailout money back is from taxes on bonuses. I think bonuses should be looked at on a case by case basis, or you turn into a socialist.”

For now, let's ignore the failed logic (you can only pay taxes if you get bonuses) and the failed math (taxes paid on $14.5 billion in bonuses will pay for $850 billion in bailout money?). To suggest that we run the risk of becoming "socialists" if we take away bonuses for executives who ran their companies into the ground is simply mind-numbing.

Here's another clueless Wall Street welfare queen commenting on Barack Obama's suggestion that bonuses granted to executives in failing companies was "shameful":

“It’s a very slippery slope to go down,” said another insurance broker as he waited to be seated for lunch at Cipriani Downtown. “A blanket statement like that borders on ... socialism.”

No wonder these guys ran our economy into the ground. They have no sense or understanding that capitalism is about rewarding accomplishment and success. You get rewarded for success, not failure.

But here's my favorite Wall Street quote of the day:

“On Main Street, ‘bonus’ sounds like a gift ... But it’s part of the compensation structure of Wall Street. Say I’m a banker and I created $30 million. I should get a part of that.”

Here's my question: What happens when wealth disappears because the investment instruments you created collapse? Who's responsible for the trillions lost in the market over the past 6 months?

- Mark