4 ms·
Clawbacks sound good in theory, but there's one giant barrier: the legal system and due process. To justify taking away someone's bonuses, you still have to ac
by smallnamespace 9y ago
Clawbacks sound good in theory, but there's one giant barrier: the legal system and due process.
To justify taking away someone's bonuses, you still have to accuse them of some sort of wrongdoing and malfeasance, and then prove it.
The barrier is lower (preponderance of evidence vs. no reasonable doubt), but the same basic question remains: what do you charge them with, and can you prove it? Note that bonus clawbacks were instituted at many banks after the crisis, but they weren't in place before then.
I just want to note that many bankers did lose their jobs and their life savings in the crisis themselves. A lot of bankers had much of their savings (unwisely) in their own company stock. Everyone at Bear, Lehman, MF Financial, and a bunch of other places found themselves out of a job and often out of much of their wealth at the same time. Most of these weren't people greedily rubbing two coins together while thinking of how to screw the American people -- they were people who deluded themselves and thought their money machines stable and impregnable and never thought they would blow up.
- lowbloodsugar 9y agoTaxes.
- twoodfin 9y agoIf Congress tried to restructure what would otherwise be a taking in the form of a retroactive tax on past earnings, I suspect the Federal courts would see right through it.
- 1024core 9y ago> Clawbacks sound good in theory, but there's one giant barrier: the legal system and due process. You haven't heard of "Civil Asset Forfeiture" ? Where's the "due process" there??
- twblalock 9y agoAre you arguing that such a lack of due process should be extended to other areas of law? If you think civil asset forfeiture is wrong, the solution is to get rid of it, not to create more wrongness in other places.
- 1024core 9y agoThe "lack of due process" is used against the poor all the time, and continues to be; so why not the rich too? "Equal protection under the law" and all that, right? Why is CAF a problem when it's brought up for the rich??
- twblalock 9y agoIt's a problem when it's brought up for anyone. The fact that some people are unfairly victimized does not justify extending that victimization to others.