C'mon, Mr Prez, Nobody Will Run Bank for $500K

Obama, after pledge to be above the noise, falls prey to it instead
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 4, 2009 12:34 PM CST
C'mon, Mr Prez, Nobody Will Run Bank for $500K
President Barack Obama listens to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as he speaks about executive compensation today at the White House.   (AP Photo)

Sure, bankers make too much money, but President Obama’s ceiling “is just a misguided attempt to quiet the peanut gallery,” writes Megan Barnett in Portfolio. The $500,000-per-year executive cap will discourage banks from taking needed government cash, and drive away top talent. “Money is what motivates people to come to Wall Street,” she writes. “It’s not a public-service job, nor should it pay like one.”

As one analyst tactfully put it, “You’re going to get a different variety of folks who are going to come in.” Translation: Only a lousy executive is going to work for $500,000. Obama is “swept up in the public-relations tantrum” over bonuses. It’s just noise—as when auto executives were called out for their plane rides—but it seems “it’s all he can hear.” (More Barack Obama stories.)

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