Scott Berkun

What wall street should be required to do

I don’t write much about politics and the economy, but the recent bailout makes that impossible. Best thing I’ve read so far, pragmatically speaking is this list of suggestions from Robert Reich:

My five nominees:

1. The government (i.e. taxpayers) gets an equity stake in every Wall Street financial company proportional to the amount of bad debt that company shoves onto the public. So when and if Wall Street shares rise, taxpayers are rewarded for accepting so much risk.

2. Wall Street executives and directors of Wall Street firms relinquish their current stock options and this year’s other forms of compensation, and agree to future compensation linked to a rolling five-year average of firm profitability. Why should taxpayers feather their already amply-feathered nests?

Read the full excellent, and thought provoking, post here.

• Posted Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 1:30 pm


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