The title of a recently released CBS News article is "Congress Wants Say Over Wall Street Pay". This sounds like a good tag line, but jokes aside, it appears as if the capitalism we once knew (all that wheeling and dealing without considering risks) is now over.

The first sentence is "Congress wants to give the government a direct role in deciding how much executives on Wall Street are paid, after the nation's biggest banks accepted billions in taxpayer money and still managed to distribute $1 million bonuses to thousands of employees". This can only mean one thing. Citgroup, JPMorgan Chase, Lehman and all the other major banks had sufficient funds to begin with. They simply asked for more from the federal government TO FINANCE EXECUTIVES' LAVISH LIFESTYLES, which is disgraceful because if this is indeed true, most of the major banks would be guilty of fraud.

So how excessive has executive compensation been on Wall Street as small investors on Main Street suffer? "Citigroup, which is one-third owned by the government, gave 738 of its employees bonuses of at least $1 million, even after it lost $18.7 billion during the year (2008), Cuomo's (New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo) office said. The New York-based bank received $45 billion in government money". "Bank of America, which also received $45 billion in bailout money, paid $3.3 billion in bonuses WITH AT LEAST 172 EMPLOYEES RECEIVING AT LEAST $1 MILLION" for creating this mess "and the top four recipients a combined $64 million".

According to House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank, "The problem with executive compensation is, from the systematic standpoint, THAT IT GIVES PERVERSE INCENTIVES". The key words are "perverse incentives". In other words, as the financial crisis rages on, some bank executives are still getting rewarded for making risky investments as many small and honest investors lose millions, billions or perhaps even their life savings in extreme cases (the Lehman minibonds saga which still hasn't been resolved in Hong Kong; 43700 investors lost HK$15.7 million) AND THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. Frank goes on to say that this is just like saying "heads you win, TAILS YOU BREAK EVEN" which is unjustifiable. Business is a competition and in all competitions, there are rules, winners and losers.

As for the GOP response, "Republicans opposed the bill in committee because they say IT WOULD GIVE THE GOVERNMENT TOO MUCH CONTROL OVER EXECUTIVE PAY". "it would give the government too much control" is a popular GOP tagline, but, in a time of crisis, top executives, managers and directors shouldn't be making millions and billions while their employees and others are losing perhaps their life savings and livelihoods. However, the Ranking Republican on the committee, Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus says he understands the Democrats' position/stance and people's outrage over outlandish executive compensation packages: "Politically, it was very difficult for my members to stand up and fight this legislation" because Republicans are now the minority in both the Senate and the House and on this particular issue, they are wrong. Prof. Nan Peck, a speech communication professor at Northern Virginia Community College says, as far as relationships are concerned, "When you're wrong, apologize and mean it". Politicians should follow this rule: when you're clearly wrong, admit it and concede because when you're clearly wrong, there's no point in continuing the argument.

Finally, according to New York Democratic Rep. Edolphus Towns, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, "This egregious (i.e. outrageous) behavior proves that WALL STREET STILL DOESN'T GET THAT TIMES HAVE CHANGED AND THE OLD WAY OF PAYING EXECUTIVES IS LONG GONE". Again, this is like Obama slamming Bush all over again (i.e. this is good old-fashioned partisan politics at its best). Rep. Towns, the financial system is already being reformed, thanks to this latest proposal, so it's best to stop venting at Wall Street executives. move forward and try to ensure, as much as possible, that a crisis of this magnitude doesn't happen again.