Big Banks Needed This Comeuppance

It was about time that someone took the banks honestly to task but more importantly took a firm step to fixing the system. I'm going to be one of the few commentators on a financial website to praise President Obama, but here it comes.

How long were we going to give these banks a free ride on our backs? We've protected and guaranteed their efforts since the repeal of Glass/Steagall and they have run rampant, making money and paying out bonuses to their minions like 10,000 Imelda Marcoses who never, ever seem to have enough shoes. When is enough enough?

Big Banks Still Not Stable

The buck should stop here. Ten percent unemployment coupled with the worst recession since the Great Depression, all arguably caused by the same men who are bathing themselves in some of the best earnings they've ever posted: Goldman Sachs (GS) concluded a year with a $13.3 billion dollar profit, and let's be very clear -- more than 80% of that money was not made through doing "God's work" of moving capital and creating financing for American business. The gross majority of those profits were made through their "sales and trading" operations -- their proprietary accounts.

And take it from a career trader, who's witnessed the investment banks overwhelm and control every capital market and continue to wrest control of every derivative market out there. They eat insatiably everything that comes through their desks and continue to create products that provide new and more interesting meals.

Every new bond issue -- a fee and a nod to the bond desk. "What do you think?"