Filed under: Economy We all know that Wall Street’s bad bets nearly brought the financial system to its knees last year. Then U.S. taxpayers footed the bill to bail out Wall Street — taking on obligations potentially as high as $23.7 trillion , leading to a $1.4 trillion federal deficit, and $12 trillion in national debt. To me that’s a kind of reverse-Robin-Hood action. Ironically, a New York City charity called the Robin Hood Foundation, which says it supports 200 poverty-fighting programs, is celebrating Wall Street’s expected $140 billion 2009 bonus windfall. The head of Robin Hood’s response to the upcoming record Wall Street bonuses is “Hell yeah!” reports Bloomberg News . The reason for David Saltzman’s enthusiasm is that Robin Hood claims it gets more than half of its annual $150 million in donations from the employees of investment banks, brokerage firms and hedge funds. Continue reading Wall Street bonuses are Robin Hood in reverse — but one Robin Hood approves Wall Street bonuses are Robin Hood in reverse — but one Robin Hood approves originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Wall Street bonuses are Robin Hood in reverse — but one Robin Hood approves

Filed under: Company News , Economy , Healthcare When it comes to allocating scarce public resources, large corporations seem to have the upper hand in the US. We already know that many powerful companies, particularly the Wall Street investment banks, having gotten plenty of Washington cash. Now it looks like they’re getting first dibs on the scarce H1N1 vaccine as well. If I remember correctly, last fall the problems with the financial sector nearly cratered the global economy — what with the $30 trillion in lost stock market value and over a trillion dollars in bank write-offs. As I’ve written before, Wall Street accounts for 0.057 percent of our population, but because it has given $5 billion to Washington politicians and lobbyists over the last decade, the government poured trillions of dollars into bailing it out after its little collapse last year. Continue reading Wall Street gets it all: Bailouts, bonuses, first dibs on H1N1 vaccine Wall Street gets it all: Bailouts, bonuses, first dibs on H1N1 vaccine originally appeared on DailyFinance on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Wall Street gets it all: Bailouts, bonuses, first dibs on H1N1 vaccine