Live-blogging Midmorning:

Posted at 9:06 AM on March 23, 2009 by Bob Collins (8 Comments)
Filed under: Economy

I'm in the studio with Kerri Miller of Midmorning this morning to talk about the nature of outrage in the wake of the AIG bonuses. "I won't govern out of anger," President Barack Obama said over the weekend, suggesting he'd likely veto the tax on the bonuses passed by Congress last week.

Writing in the New York Times, Joe Nocera says people have gone a little overboard, what with death threats and all. He also notes that the people who put the screws to AIG are living a good life in retirement and nobody seems much interested in getting their money back.

Our discussion about Wall St. features Daniel Gross, the senior editor and columnist at Newsweek, who also writes the "Moneybox" column for Slate; Kate Jennings, a former Wall St. speechwriter (Wall St. had speechwriters? Let's see you write one for this mess!) and Michele Boldrin, chair of the department of economics at Washington University in St. Louis.

As usual, I'll have a parallel conversation in this parallel universe, and will drop in your comments on the air during the hour, which begins at 9. If you've got some comments now you'd like me to pass along, post them in the comments section below.

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Comments (8)

What the critical link between the regulated banking community (FDIC) and the investment banking community?

Why can’t we shore up the regulated banking community and let the Wall Street banking community fail? They made huge profits in the past several years, why should we subsidize their losses? This is not capitalism!

Posted by Pete | March 23, 2009 9:38 AM

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Am listening to Mid Morning, and all the talk about AIG, while the outrage is justified, the genesis of this goes back to the repeal of the Glass Seagall Act, the change of status of investment banks to banks, and the increase of capital leverage to over to 40 to 1, and finally the decision the de regulate derivatives in 2000, by the CMDT Act of 2000.
The 5 firms involved have taken this country to the brink, and AIG insured the msecurities that were issued. The leaders of these firms knew full well the loans would not turn out well, but in order to fuel the securitization of the mortgages, and then the downstream effects, they had to have the inventory. Thes folks are all simply greedy, amoral, and feel entitled. Wall Street knew full well what they were doing, and just did not care. All the pundits criticizing, but not being constuctive with solutions is not helpful

I don't have the answers, but I am

Posted by Mike C | March 23, 2009 9:47 AM

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I feel that the executives do not seem to worry of the consequences for there actions.

Posted by Jean Uhlenkott | March 23, 2009 9:55 AM

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They just hit on what the problem is: THERE IS NO COMMUNITY ANYMORE. We live ourlives not in touch with people: in cars not buses, on line not in person, etc.

Posted by Laska | March 23, 2009 9:56 AM

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As a banker in a small family owned bank in outstate MN, it is extremely frustrating to see the government bailouts of "too big to fail" banks & other companies like AIG. Most small community bankers kept to the conservative underwriting that we are known for and in the process didn't rake in huge profits. However, now we are safe & sound and being forced to pay for these bailouts in the form of double & triple FDIC assessment payments. It makes a resposible, ethical banker just want to throw in the towel.

Posted by Susan Loch | March 23, 2009 10:05 AM

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Great discussion.

However, with all the confusion about why Obama and congress are not taking a common sense approach, we should be following the money trail. It was the same banks that are being bailed out that were major contributors to the political campaigns. There is a definite link between decisions and private money. See opensecrets.org
The problem will not change until we look to public financing of elections.

Posted by gabrielle | March 23, 2009 10:09 AM

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Please read the Monday, March 23, article in the Busines section of the StarTribune entitled: THE LURE OF LEVERAGE by Patrick Delaney. The article explains the root of our current banking tsunami: derugulation. The sensible thing to do would be to put those regulations back in place.

Posted by Robert | March 23, 2009 10:20 AM

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Outrage?! Part of my outrage is for the Congresspeople who brought us deregulation and are now exuding a 'holier-than-thou' attitude.
I am not sure how we become large and remain responsible to everyday people. Remember Bush I's shopping trip? The challenges of remaining attuned while living separate are enormous. How do we manage corporations as they grow and offer us the advantages of macro manufacturing so they remember that their actions have micro impacts on all of us?

Posted by Fran | March 23, 2009 10:25 AM

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