When Rudd doesn’t clone the US… er, kinda
Obama wants to tax banks. Rudd wants to give them tax breaks.
Yet, they have their similarities. Rudd wants an ETS. So does Obama.
Guess they’re just both doing what they can to recoup the ‘stimulus’ packages they both doshed out.
PS
In case you missed all the links, Global Financial Crisis instigators, and Democrat love children, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, just like the unions, are exempt from any new taxes.
UPDATE
More, in case you missed it (like I did).
UPDATE II
From the link. Oh dear.
Bank of America also has repaid its aid, freeing itself from the condition lenders hate most about the bailouts: Treasury oversight of executive pay. Even so, it sought the Treasury’s advice on a pay package before hiring a new chief executive.
The bank was considering paying between $US35 million and $US40m to hire Robert Kelly, CEO of Bank of New York Mellon, much of it to buy out his unvested shares and options. The Bank of America board wanted to know how that would go over in Washington. Treasury paymaster Kenneth Feinberg told the bank that if it were still under his purview, he would reject the package. Around the same time, Mr Obama publicly bashed “fat cat” bankers.
With those two signals, the talks with Mr Kelly fizzled, according to officials involved with the decision. The bank instead promoted an insider, Brian Moynihan, who had been working to repair the bank’s reputation in Washington.
It thus chose a more politic man to lead it, post-crisis, than departing CEO Kenneth Lewis, who in a March meeting with the US President had said he wouldn’t “suck up” to federal economic aides, according to people familiar with the exchange. Mr Moynihan, by contrast, told Obama aides in October that Bank of America wanted to work with the White House to achieve US policy goals in areas like small-business lending and foreclosure prevention. As for his pay, Mr Moynihan asked that it be determined later.
COMMENT
Is anyone a real fan of overpaid bankers? But even worse is a government controlling them. Then again, some would argue it’s the other way round.
Either way, all this is too close for comfort.
