You bailed out my mistake, I deserve a bonus for that

we (you, I, us, the taxpayers) gave the “too big to fail” banks our money so they wouldn’t collapse, collapse under their own weight from their own mistakes created by their own greed, and now that they’re solvent again, they’re rewarding themselves for the fuck up, instead of paying us back

clipped from open.salon.com 2009 closed with the stock market rebounding 61 percent from its March lows, and “Wall Street is ready to pat itself on the back for its huge gains with big bonuses,” potentially surpassing the record payouts of 2007. Wall Street’s 2009 bonus pool could total $200 billion the return to big bonuses will also allow Wall Street banks to claim billions in tax breaks: Many American banks already pay minuscule federal income taxes, the payout-related breaks will reduce their tax bills further Altogether, the top three Wall Street banks — Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley — will gain nearly $20 billion in tax breaks based on their employee compensation this year. Compensation related tax deductions will total about $80 billion across Wall Street, In 2008, Goldman Sachs paid an effective tax rate of just 1 percent NOT ONE OF THE BANKSTERS WHO COMMITTED THE FRAUD THAT CREATED THE MORTGAGE CRISIS HAS GONE TO JAIL.