Wall Street's Post-Bailout Bonus Binge

The tension between Main Street and Wall Street is only growing. The Obama administration’s special master for executive compensation, Kenneth Feinberg, announces on Friday that 17 financial companies handed out $1.58 billion in possibly undeserved bonuses shortly after being bailed out by taxpayers in 2008. The report will likely call out Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, and AIG, among other institutions. Feinberg has no real power to order the banks to reimburse the government for the bonuses they've already handed out, yet he’s asked banks to voluntarily adopt a provision that would allow their boards to alter bonuses in the event of a future financial crisis. The banks have said they’ll think about it.