mb*
02-12-2009, 01:24 PM
ABC News' Terry Moran interviewed President Barack Obama about the economic recovery plan on Tuesday. An excerpt follows.
Moran: People are angry, there's so much taxpayer money going into the banks. Why shouldn't the government just fire the executives who wrecked these banks in the first place and tanked the world's financial system in the process?
President Obama: Well, some of them are gone because their institutions have effectively collapsed. Keep in mind, though, there are a lot of banks that are actually pretty well managed—JPMorgan Chase being a good example. Jamie Dimon, the CEO there—I don't think he should be punished for doing a pretty good job managing an enormous portfolio.
What we want to do is to say, if you're going to take money from the taxpayers, then you're going to be constrained in terms of how you give yourself compensation, and shareholders are going to be empowered.
If you're not taking money, then we'll let shareholders and boards of directors handle things as they generally have handled them. I do hope that we're going to see a change in culture where everybody in the financial system starts recognizing that $100 million bonuses annually are not a birthright. We've got to recognize that if you're going to reward people for success, you've also got to punish them for failure—and that hasn't been happening.
Moran: People are angry, there's so much taxpayer money going into the banks. Why shouldn't the government just fire the executives who wrecked these banks in the first place and tanked the world's financial system in the process?
President Obama: Well, some of them are gone because their institutions have effectively collapsed. Keep in mind, though, there are a lot of banks that are actually pretty well managed—JPMorgan Chase being a good example. Jamie Dimon, the CEO there—I don't think he should be punished for doing a pretty good job managing an enormous portfolio.
What we want to do is to say, if you're going to take money from the taxpayers, then you're going to be constrained in terms of how you give yourself compensation, and shareholders are going to be empowered.
If you're not taking money, then we'll let shareholders and boards of directors handle things as they generally have handled them. I do hope that we're going to see a change in culture where everybody in the financial system starts recognizing that $100 million bonuses annually are not a birthright. We've got to recognize that if you're going to reward people for success, you've also got to punish them for failure—and that hasn't been happening.