I'd really like to know what the hacker news community thinks of this letter. I was recently employed by a large investment bank in a situation similar to that

I'd really like to know what the hacker news community thinks of this letter. I was recently employed by a large investment bank in a situation similar to that described by the letter writer: working in a profitable business that was overshadowed by the losses generated by a few people in a group that was completely unrelated. In my case, approximately 50 people out of tens of thousands were responsible for many billions of dollars of losses, and the company was even able to report profitable quarters over the last year and a half or so because of the vast amounts of money earned by those in other business units. People need to understand that these sorts of companies are very diverse and that equity and commodity business lines have been profitable, even as a small portion of the fixed income business has lost tremendous amounts of money. As someone who has moved on to a much smaller startup financial company, I'm very happy to see the acrimony that is heaped on people indiscriminately because of their employer: this means it will be easier to recruit top notch people who are sick of the bullshit. However, as a taxpayer, I'm quite concerned that proposals like the AIG 90% bonus tax (which will apply to any firm that took, or was forced to take, government money) will end up destroying firms in which the government has invested significant money. Those employees have a choice as to where to work, and driving them to work for other companies where they will be paid appropriately will only leave taxpayers holding the bag; after all of the good employees have left, they will have invested billions of dollars in a company that only serves as a repository for shitty mortgage bonds or credit default swaps or CMOs or whatever the screwups decided to place big bets on. I'm not sure what the right answer is, maybe I should just accept that large amounts of money are going to be flushed down the toilet because it is a politician's job to react to whatever headline pops up on the media's radar instead of coming up with a well reasoned plan and executing it, but it sickens me to see how much this process has been driven by media coverage that can't afford to take the time to properly explain the complexities of the situation. Believe me when I tell you that there really are many smart, motivated people working in this industry and that companies will live or die by the quality of people that they have running their businesses, just as in the tech community. I guess that's all I have to say, take it for what you will.