FELIX SALMON IS IGNORANT & STUPID

In a column at Portfolio.com, Salmon inadvertently brings up the question of why he is drawing a paycheck for writing crap like this - "Answers for David Cay Johnston." On the issue of trying to get back bnonuses, etc. from the Masters of the Universe who royally screwed up the credit market:

The senior executives at the banks? They've seen their net worth plunge along with their share prices. There might be a couple of fat-cats still around whom the government could ask to repay their bonuses. But it would be gesture politics.

First, let's make a few gestures. Perhaps stringing a few of these people up from street lights would wake up the rest of them. Anyway, there is at least one bundle of "pay for failure" money, $2.5 billion for the Lehman Bros. executives.

Salmon then goes on to make this obscene remark:

And what about the people who really made out, like those who were so fortunate that their last surviving parent in Southern California died at the top of the market in early 2006, and that the estate sold the house for three times more than it's worth now?

THIS IS WHO "REALLY MADE OUT"

Congress panel wants to grill subprime CEOs on pay
Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:48pm EST

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Current and former CEOs of three major U.S. financial institutions deeply involved in the widening subprime mortgage crisis were asked on Monday by a Congressional committee to testify at a hearing next month on their massive pay and severance packages.

Despite these problems, Merrill said O'Neal would collect about $161.5 million in stock awards and benefits after leaving. One expert estimated shortly after his resignation that Prince would depart Citi with about $31 million.