Bankers Should Only Rot in Hell

The bankers and their allies in the Republican party rammed through changes to the bankruptcy laws three years ago. The changes, in a nutshell, made a lot of people ineligible for Chapter 7 bankruptcy (in which you keep your house and all debts would be settled) and forced them into Chapter 13 (you lose your house and enter into a payment plan for your other debts).

The banks made it harder for people who fell on hard times to get back on their feet.

I am keeping that in mind while all of these banks tramp down to Washington for their bailouts. Between salaries and bonuses, those guys are taking home 8-9 figure pay packages each year. It makes it hard for me to feel for those guys as they plead why their banks and companies need tens of billions of dollars to stay afloat.

I am not so spiteful to advocate being economic kamikazes, to completely shatter the economy in order to bring down the bankers. But I see no reason why we cannot attach conditions to the bailouts and one of those should be a hard cap on the top of compensation for the upper management of the banks receiving government money. If those folks were worth more, they'd have done a better job.

If we cap their pay, even if they are permitted to receive $500,000 a year, and they wind up losing their huge Manhattan apartments because they can't pay the mortgage on their eight-figure pad, well, don't expect me to shed any tears for them.