{"id":301969,"date":"2010-02-10T11:07:43","date_gmt":"2010-02-10T16:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=76263"},"modified":"2010-02-10T11:07:43","modified_gmt":"2010-02-10T16:07:43","slug":"why-obama-doesn%e2%80%99t-begrudge-bankers-their-bonuses-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/301969","title":{"rendered":"Why Obama Doesn\u2019t Begrudge Bankers Their Bonuses This Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In an interview with Business Week, Obama said that he didn&#8217;t &#8220;begrudge&#8221; J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon or Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein their bonuses for 2009, which amounted to $17 million and $9 million in stocks. While this has <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.abcnews.com\/politicalpunch\/2010\/02\/wall-street-bonuses-president-obama-once-called-obscene-and-shameful-now-he-doesnt-begrudge.html\" >spurred outrage<\/a> and unfavorable comparisons to <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.abcnews.com\/politicalpunch\/2009\/03\/president-ob-11.html\" >last year&#8217;s remarks<\/a> blasting the $121 million in bonuses at AIG, there are a few good reasons why lavish bonuses might be more justifiable this time around.<span id=\"more-76263\"><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Goldman Sachs <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/01\/21\/AR2010012101044.html\" >made $13 billion<\/a> in 2009, after <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ritholtz.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/how-to-puff-up-earnings-goldman-sachs-style\/\">losing $780 million<\/a> (after taxes) in 2008.<\/li>\n<li>Chase <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/01\/16\/business\/16morgan.html\" >doubled its 2008 profits to $11.7 billion<\/a> in 2009.<\/li>\n<li>Chase <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tarppayback.com\/2009\/06\/jpmorgan-chase-repays-tarp-funds.html\" >repaid its TARP money<\/a> in full by July 2009.<\/li>\n<li>Goldman <a href=\"http:\/\/globaleconomy.foreignpolicyblogs.com\/2009\/07\/22\/taxpayers-earn-23-on-goldman-sachs-tarp-repayment\/\" >repaid its TARP money with a 23 percent<\/a> profit by July 2009.<\/li>\n<li>Neither <a href=\"http:\/\/uk.reuters.com\/article\/idUKN1943912820081219\">Dimon<\/a> nor <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/business\/2010\/feb\/06\/blankfein-goldman-sachs-bonus-2009\" >Blankfein<\/a> took a bonus for 2008.<\/li>\n<li>For 2007, Dimon <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB20001424052748704533204575047132761932208.html\" >received a $28 million bonus<\/a> that was not restricted to stock.<\/li>\n<li>For 2007, Blankfein <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/apps\/news?pid=20601087&amp;refer=home&amp;sid=anyB1avLcuTA\" >received a $67.9 million bonus<\/a>, including $26.8 million in cash and $41.1 million in restricted stock and stock options.<\/li>\n<li>J.P. Morgan Chase <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/news\/2010-02-10\/obama-doesn-t-begrudge-bonuses-for-savvy-blankfein-dimon.html\" >made a profit every quarter<\/a> during and despite the financial crisis.<\/li>\n<li>Goldman&#8217;s stock <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/news\/2010-02-10\/obama-doesn-t-begrudge-bonuses-for-savvy-blankfein-dimon.html\" >doubled in value last year<\/a> and its profits were at a record high.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, what did <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/news\/2010-02-10\/obama-doesn-t-begrudge-bonuses-for-savvy-blankfein-dimon.html\" >the president say<\/a>?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,\u201d Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. \u201cI, like most of the American people, don\u2019t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free-market system.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He does, however, view the amounts as shocking.<\/p>\n<p>But who would have guessed! Our president doesn&#8217;t begrudge CEOs bonuses that are smaller than they were before the crisis, when their companies were hugely profitable and their TARP money had been repaid? What kind of socialist is he, anyway?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an interview with Business Week, Obama said that he didn&#8217;t &#8220;begrudge&#8221; J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon or Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein their bonuses for 2009, which amounted to $17 million and $9 million in stocks. While this has spurred outrage and unfavorable comparisons to last year&#8217;s remarks blasting the $121 million in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5454,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-301969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}