Progress on Bankers´ Pay?

It´s been announced the Ken Lewis, Bank of America´s CEO, will give back $1million of his $1.5million yearly salary and receive no bonus for 2009. He will step down as CEO end of 2009.

Giving back $1million is barely a scratch to Lewis, who´s retirement package and stock options are valued at $69.3million (minimum).

All banks and bankers should be severely punished for what they have caused to the financial system. They should be penalized financially since everything they do is for the money in the first place.

What´s a little unfair is that banks which still owe money to the US government are being penalized and scrutinized while others who borrowed from TARP funds and already paid them back to the US government are allowed to proceed scotch-free. Goldmans Sachs is going to pay record bonuses to employees this year. GS CEO Blankfein is all smiles, all the time. It´s quite annoying. When the financial crisis bit him and Goldman in the ass, he went crying to the US government and all is ex-GS pals asking to become a "bank" able to hold deposits and borrow funds from TARP. GS then takes the borrowed TARP funds, gambles in the market, makes a huge profit (I will admit they are very smart and know how to make money, be it in a completely unethical manner and feeding off the less powerful (ex: the individual American investor)). They take their profits and pay back the government with interest (isn´t that polite) and their crisis is over. Because GS now owes nothing to the US government, party time continues! And who pays for the mess GS and many other financial institutions contributed to? We, the American tax-payers, do. Not only do we suffer from investment losses but we also foot the bill for the institutions who caused our losses AND made money off our losses. Yes, that´s right.

Shame on you Goldman.