Apparently ignoring risky behavior and turning a blind eye to problems was worth $19 million from the Bush administration. Sheesh. It's no wonder the Republicans don't want to reform Wall Street. They wanted lax regulation and got it thanks to bonuses for everyone who let Wall Street do whatever Wall Street wanted to do. Tell me again why the Democrats are too weak to take on this fight? Besides Wall Street and the teabaggers, who is against reform? Unbelievable.
Banks weren't the only ones giving big bonuses in the boom years before the worst financial crisis in generations. The government also was handing out millions of dollars to bank regulators, rewarding "superior" work even as an avalanche of risky mortgages helped create the meltdown.
The payments, detailed in payroll data released to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, are the latest evidence of the government's false sense of security during the go-go days of the financial boom. Just as bank executives got bonuses despite taking on dangerous amounts of risk, regulators got taxpayer-funded bonuses despite missing or ignoring signs that the system was on the verge of a meltdown.
The bonuses were part of a reward program little known outside the government. Some government regulators got tens of thousands of dollars in perks, boosting their salaries by almost 25 percent. Often, though, rewards amounted to just a few hundred dollars for employees who came up with good ideas.
