Wall Street Mantra:

Privatise for profit
Socialise for losses

AKA: Having your cake and eating it too.

Gordon Gecko rules: "Greed is good".

I agree with Steven on this one.

I thought Mac Bank was a rort! On sunday on ABC a defence of Mac Bank was mounted by a guy who it seamed new what he was talking about?
Known as the millionares factory, for it's well paid bonus system, while at the top of the cycle. The model it has worked from appeared to be a failure when the "the global system" failed. I was surprised to learn it is far from failure? It maybe in recess for a while, but the model is still valid.
Any other saw the defence? and what did you deduce?
fluff

Good and timely topic Steven, I agree.

The size of the global credit crunch caused by above mentioned behavior is overwhelming. The commission system need to be replaced by a VC model where brokers can only make money if the protfolio is profitable.

Peace,

It looks as of the great Wall Street bailout is going ahead.

See:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/business/29bailout.html?bl&ex=1222833600&en=78e47e85adbe5725&ei=5087%0A

The bill will provide for some mild "capital" punishment for the executives of banks that are bailed out. Their "golden parachutes" will be capped.

Of course that's nothing compared to the "capital" punishment American taxpayers will suffer.

And the moral of the story is:

If we don’t impose "capital" punishment on our bankers, they will impose it on us