Sep 29 2008
US Bail-out Deal - it’s a Life Vest, but Does it Protect the Right People?
OK so I haven’t read the entire thing. But there are things that stick out immediately and make me say “No, I don’t agree with this.” If I had of agreed with it all, I’d of immediately smelled a rat and went off to read it in its entirity, but as it is ……..! If you want to read the reports, the links are at the bottom of this entry.
On first reading of the summary the first words that jumped out were “golden parachutes” near the bottom of the page. These exact words were used by Barrack Obama in the debate last week. He said that there should be no golden parachutes for those involved in this mess. The summary however implies that there will be some of these – it says “the bill limits “golden parachutes”. Whilst I agree that there will be some weeding of executive personnel in order to cut back on huge salaries, I don’t think that these people should be given any more financial compensation than a person on minimum wage will get if their job is also cut – the terms of the contract on severance and that’s it. The executive is far more responsible for the situation he or she is in, and has had more opportunity to save money than the person on minimum wage, and unless minimum wage job cuts come with “golden parachutes” then I don’t see any need to give the executives them either. If you’re doing a great job, you won’t be cut. If you’re not, and you one of the people who let this financial situation arise, then I’m sorry but you don’t deserve tax payers’ bail-out dollars.
The other thing that I didn’t like was that Congress must disapprove the allocation of funds, not approve it. Perhaps in the broad sense it amounts to the same thing, but it’s a language issue. The funds shouldn’t be approved for allocation unless Congress says no, instead the funds should be requested and Congress approve whether or not to release them according to certain criteria. When my children want to do something they must get my approval. They can’t just assume that I’ll say yes and make decisions based on that which I have to then deal with if I’m against what they want to do. Even though this money has been “ear-marked” now for the financial bail-out, the ways in which it is allocated should be all approved through Congress, and not as the bail-out deal implies, approved unless Congress says otherwise. It just sounds too much like a free pass.
One thing I did like was that there is a move in place to help more families keep their homes. Whilst the added tax burden is going to hit every family already struggling with their household budget, at least there’s going to be fewer families made homeless because of greed and incompetence in the financial sector.
Here are the links to the House Committee’s reports:
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
Summary of Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
Section-by-Section of Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
