If this is true, I gained some respect for Pres. Obama.

[Soul Crusher]

POLITICO

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Inside Obama's bank CEOs meeting
By EAMON JAVERS | 4/3/09 1:34 PM EDT   Text Size:     
 
 
Freddie Mac CEO John Koskinen, Northern Trust CEO Rick Waddell and Banker's Association CEO Ed Yingling leave the White House March 27.
Photo: AP 
 
The bankers struggled to make themselves clear to the president of the United States.

Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees – and, by extension, to themselves.

“These are complicated companies,” one CEO said. Offered another: “We’re competing for talent on an international market.”

But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation, and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations. “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.”

“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

The fresh details of the meeting – some never before revealed – come from an account provided to POLITICO by one of the participants. A second source inside the meeting confirmed the details, and two other sources familiar with the meeting offered additional information.

The accounts demonstrate that despite the public comments on both sides that the meeting was cordial, the tone in the room was in fact one of mutual wariness. The titans of finance – men used to being the most powerful man in almost any room – sized up a new president who made clear in ways big and small that he expected them to change their ways.

See also

There were signs from the outset that this was a business event, not a social gathering. At each place around the table sat a single glass of water. No ice. For those who finished their glass, no refills were offered. There was no group photograph taken of the CEOs with the president, which typically happens at ceremonial White House gatherings, but not at serious strategy sessions.

“The only way they could have sent a more Spartan message is if they had served bread along with the water,” says a person who attended the meeting. “The signal from Obama’s body language and demeanor was, ‘I’m the president, and you’re not.’”

According to the accounts of sources inside the room, President Obama told the CEOs exactly what he expects from them, and pushed back forcefully when they attempted to defend Wall Street’s legendarily high paying ways.

Watch the Bank CEOs' press conference after last week's meeting:

 
________________________ ________________________ ______________

If this is true, i have gained some respect for Obama.

No kidding.  This is a good sign.
 
 

[SAMSON123]

I say ...LET THE PITCH FORK TOTING PUBLIC HAVE AT 'EM...

[loco]

“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

 

[Hedgehog]

It's still mostly talk from Obama as far as the banks goes.
He's been way to soft on those guys - inconsistent.
But it's a step in the right direction - it's what he should be doing all along - represent the citizens. 

[Dan-O]

POLITICO

Navigate:  POLITICO   |  Politics  |  Inside Obama's bank CEOs meeting 
 Listen     Print      Comment      Email      Recommend           
Inside Obama's bank CEOs meeting
By EAMON JAVERS | 4/3/09 1:34 PM EDT   Text Size:     
 
 
Freddie Mac CEO John Koskinen, Northern Trust CEO Rick Waddell and Banker's Association CEO Ed Yingling leave the White House March 27.
Photo: AP 
 
The bankers struggled to make themselves clear to the president of the United States.

Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees – and, by extension, to themselves.

“These are complicated companies,” one CEO said. Offered another: “We’re competing for talent on an international market.”

But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation, and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations. “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.”

“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

The fresh details of the meeting – some never before revealed – come from an account provided to POLITICO by one of the participants. A second source inside the meeting confirmed the details, and two other sources familiar with the meeting offered additional information.

The accounts demonstrate that despite the public comments on both sides that the meeting was cordial, the tone in the room was in fact one of mutual wariness. The titans of finance – men used to being the most powerful man in almost any room – sized up a new president who made clear in ways big and small that he expected them to change their ways.

See also

There were signs from the outset that this was a business event, not a social gathering. At each place around the table sat a single glass of water. No ice. For those who finished their glass, no refills were offered. There was no group photograph taken of the CEOs with the president, which typically happens at ceremonial White House gatherings, but not at serious strategy sessions.

“The only way they could have sent a more Spartan message is if they had served bread along with the water,” says a person who attended the meeting. “The signal from Obama’s body language and demeanor was, ‘I’m the president, and you’re not.’”

According to the accounts of sources inside the room, President Obama told the CEOs exactly what he expects from them, and pushed back forcefully when they attempted to defend Wall Street’s legendarily high paying ways.

Watch the Bank CEOs' press conference after last week's meeting:

 
________________________ ________________________ ______________

If this is true, i have gained some respect for Obama.

No kidding.  This is a good sign.
 
 

This is kind of cool, if it's true...  but, cynical person that I am, I can't help but wonder whether the whole scenario was set up as an elaborate charade to placate said pitchfork-toting public.  We the people feel like we've gotten our pound of flesh from the bank execs, and Barack comes off looking like a hero.

[MM2K]

The furor over these bonuses and executive pay highlights a low in American history, and makes me dammed ashamed to be an American. When AIG employees are getting harassed and threatened and are recieveing threats that thier children and grandchildren are going to die - that is pretty sick. The public needs to stop feigning outrage over subjects and industries they dont know much about. Nobody knows why an executive gets large salaries while a janitor gets 100 times less. Then again, no single person knows how to make a pencil. So why do we get outraged when someone makes 100 times more than somebody else? If not one single person knows how to make a pencil then how do we expect to know something that is trillions times more complicated???

Are these people TRULY angry?? Or are they just feigning outrage to feel important in some way? These bonuses do not effect them!!!! The total amount of money is insignificant compared to what our governement is doing with our tax dollars. We deserve what we get in this country if people are going to act like this.

[Slapper]

Public relations bull-rangadang.

Wall Street owns the White House.

 

[SAMSON123]

Public relations bull-rangadang.

Wall Street owns the White House.

 

NO TRUER WORDS COULD BE SPOKEN..

[Bindare_Dundat]

Public relations bull-rangadang.

Wall Street owns the White House.

 

We have our winner.

[Hedgehog]

The furor over these bonuses and executive pay highlights a low in American history, and makes me dammed ashamed to be an American. When AIG employees are getting harassed and threatened and are recieveing threats that thier children and grandchildren are going to die - that is pretty sick. The public needs to stop feigning outrage over subjects and industries they dont know much about. Nobody knows why an executive gets large salaries while a janitor gets 100 times less. Then again, no single person knows how to make a pencil. So why do we get outraged when someone makes 100 times more than somebody else? If not one single person knows how to make a pencil then how do we expect to know something that is trillions times more complicated???

Are these people TRULY angry?? Or are they just feigning outrage to feel important in some way? These bonuses do not effect them!!!! The total amount of money is insignificant compared to what our governement is doing with our tax dollars. We deserve what we get in this country if people are going to act like this.

The same shit is going on over here, the bonuses might not be as big, but the very idea that executives are giving themselves bonuses at the very same time as their businesses are failing, their numbers are down and they're cutting jobs - that's insane.
It's part of a sick corporate culture that has to be dealt with if capitalism is to survive.

Obama's presidency will probably turn out to be the most important since FDR's.

I don't expect Obama to deliver like FDR. Nobody can ever be the equal of the greatest US president ever.
But if he only delivers a tenth of what FDR did it would be awesome.
Obama's off to a bit of a rocky start though.
Should get the infrastructure re-building going asap.     

[Soul Crusher]

The same shit is going on over here, the bonuses might not be as big, but the very idea that executives are giving themselves bonuses at the very same time as their businesses are failing, their numbers are down and they're cutting jobs - that's insane.
It's part of a sick corporate culture that has to be dealt with if capitalism is to survive.

Obama's presidency will probably turn out to be the most important since FDR's.

I don't expect Obama to deliver like FDR. Nobody can ever be the equal of the greatest US president ever.
But if he only delivers a tenth of what FDR did it would be awesome.
Obama's off to a bit of a rocky start though.
Should get the infrastructure re-building going asap.     

Washington and Lincoln were far more important than Obama.

[Hedgehog]

Washington and Lincoln were far more important than Obama.

All I wrote was that the presidency right now is the most important since FDR.

Not that Obama is important or that he's doing a good job.

What I meant was that the next four years will be very important.

[RagingBull]

POLITICO

Navigate:  POLITICO   |  Politics  |  Inside Obama's bank CEOs meeting 
 Listen     Print      Comment      Email      Recommend           
Inside Obama's bank CEOs meeting
By EAMON JAVERS | 4/3/09 1:34 PM EDT   Text Size:     
 
 
Freddie Mac CEO John Koskinen, Northern Trust CEO Rick Waddell and Banker's Association CEO Ed Yingling leave the White House March 27.
Photo: AP 
 
The bankers struggled to make themselves clear to the president of the United States.

Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees – and, by extension, to themselves.

“These are complicated companies,” one CEO said. Offered another: “We’re competing for talent on an international market.”

But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation, and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations. “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.”

“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

The fresh details of the meeting – some never before revealed – come from an account provided to POLITICO by one of the participants. A second source inside the meeting confirmed the details, and two other sources familiar with the meeting offered additional information.

The accounts demonstrate that despite the public comments on both sides that the meeting was cordial, the tone in the room was in fact one of mutual wariness. The titans of finance – men used to being the most powerful man in almost any room – sized up a new president who made clear in ways big and small that he expected them to change their ways.

See also

There were signs from the outset that this was a business event, not a social gathering. At each place around the table sat a single glass of water. No ice. For those who finished their glass, no refills were offered. There was no group photograph taken of the CEOs with the president, which typically happens at ceremonial White House gatherings, but not at serious strategy sessions.

“The only way they could have sent a more Spartan message is if they had served bread along with the water,” says a person who attended the meeting. “The signal from Obama’s body language and demeanor was, ‘I’m the president, and you’re not.’”

According to the accounts of sources inside the room, President Obama told the CEOs exactly what he expects from them, and pushed back forcefully when they attempted to defend Wall Street’s legendarily high paying ways.

Watch the Bank CEOs' press conference after last week's meeting:

 
________________________ ________________________ ______________

If this is true, i have gained some respect for Obama.

No kidding.  This is a good sign.
 
 

I'll believe it when he goes after Franklin Raines...

As an executive at Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines illegally coerced his employees to falsify accounting facts so he’d get a maximum bonus.  The government-backed firm used Enron-like fraud, in part at Raines’s orders, to create the largest bail-out in US history. Raines had the whistleblower fired.  From the Heritage Foundation:

In 2004, after a tip from a whistle blower who was later fired, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (Ofheo) issued a report finding that the government-sponsored entity Fannie Mae had engaged in Enron-like accounting machinations that allowed Fannie to overstate its earnings and underestimate the risk the company faced. The accounting wizardry Fannie engaged in was designed so that Fannie could meet profit targets to maximize bonus payments to company executives like Clinton administration deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick and Carter administration assistant director for domestic policy Franklin Raines.

[Bindare_Dundat]

I'll believe it when he goes after Franklin Raines...

As an executive at Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines illegally coerced his employees to falsify accounting facts so he’d get a maximum bonus.  The government-backed firm used Enron-like fraud, in part at Raines’s orders, to create the largest bail-out in US history. Raines had the whistleblower fired.  From the Heritage Foundation:

In 2004, after a tip from a whistle blower who was later fired, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (Ofheo) issued a report finding that the government-sponsored entity Fannie Mae had engaged in Enron-like accounting machinations that allowed Fannie to overstate its earnings and underestimate the risk the company faced. The accounting wizardry Fannie engaged in was designed so that Fannie could meet profit targets to maximize bonus payments to company executives like Clinton administration deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick and Carter administration assistant director for domestic policy Franklin Raines.

The people got jammed in the ass on this bailout bullshit. This is/was a scam, nothing else.

[Soul Crusher]

The people got jammed in the ass on this bailout bullshit. This is/was a scam, nothing else.

I have been rethinking my original post since more details have come out about this meeting. 

It seems like the banks wanted to goive the4 money back and Obama and Geithner wont take it.

[Bindare_Dundat]

I have been rethinking my original post since more details have come out about this meeting. 

It seems like the banks wanted to goive the4 money back and Obama and Geithner wont take it.

Why take it back when you can just hang it over peoples heads and use it to get them to do what you want? "See, we're "helping" you, now obey."