

Why wouldn’t a bank pay out 100 percent of feds money as executive bonuses? - old-gregg
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2008/12/22/why-wouldnt-a-bank-pay-out-100-percent-of-tarp-money-as-executive-bonuses/

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quoderat
TARP was the largest economic mistake of the last 30 years, at least. That
$700 billion, if it needed to spent at all, could've done much better in so
many other ways.

My favored idea was capitalizing an alternative financial system, that lent to
businesses directly.

But giving the money to the crooks who got us into this mess was about the
worst possible choice.

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pxlpshr
Hear hear!

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Prrometheus
He does know that executives don't set their own pay, right? And that
executive compensation is reported in proxy statements for public firms? And
that firm management can be sued if it violates its fiduciary duty to the
shareholders?

Maybe Phil is trying to make a point here, I just don't get it.

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Sam_Odio
Excellent response. Public firms report all of their expenses so it shouldn't
be hard to see how their money is spent - just look at their income statements
and statement of cash flows.

I think the real reason why banks aren't reporting how the TARP money is spent
is because they don't know.

Cash comes in, cash goes out. But it's hard to match specific cash outflows
(besides variable costs - and even those can be tough) to specific cash
inflows.

