Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

"Exxon's CEO gets raise -- (Rex) Tillerson's 2008 pay climbed 10 percent as stock prices fell.

"Tillerson, who has been with Exxon since 2006, has a salary of $1.87 million, and is to get a 10 percent raise.  He also received a $4 million bonus."

When GM executives flew to Washington in their corporate private jets to plead for bailout billions, even the generous Congress was appalled.

During their second sojourn to beg for billions at taxpayers' expense, they had been brought down to earth at least to some degree as this time, foregoing corporate jets, they drove from Detroit to Washington.

When Merrill-Lynch hastily rushed the outrageous $3 billion in bonuses, moments before it merged with Bank of America, one bonus beneficiary stands out for absurdity.

The very banker who advised on the calamitous Royal Bank of Scotland ABN AMRO mergers, which triggered the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland, waltzed away with his ill gotten gains, a bonus of $33.8 millions.

The March 26 Wall Street Journal displayed this headline:

IN EUROPE, RAGE OVER CRISIS HITS EXECUTIVES

The article by Sara Schaeffer Munoz in London and Leila Abboud in Paris revealed:

"Vandals attacked the Edinburgh home of Fred Goodwin, chief executive of the state-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland, in a sign that public outrage over the financial crisis could be taking a dangerous turn.

"The vandals broke windows at the front of Sir Fred's villa early Wednesday morning and wrecked a side and back window of his black Mercedes parked in the driveway, according to Edinburgh Police."

An E-mail was sent to the Edinburgh Evenings News declaring, "We are angry that rich people like him are paying themselves huge amounts of money after unbridled and ultimately disastrous risk taking by the financial industry, showing that he forged unusually close relationships with executives of Wall Street's giant financial institutions."

Bob Herbert in the April 28 New York Times expressed the outrage in the U.S.A. when jobs disappear while Wall Street sips champagne:

"I'm sure everyone is thrilled to know that the high rollers on Wall Street are bouncing back.  With profits on the rebound, the big shots at the biggest institutions are on track, as the Times reported Sunday, to make as much money this year as they were hauling in before the mega recession began.

"The growing legions of the unemployed can be forgiven for not shouting hallelujah.  It's a little like watching the drunken driver who plowed into your family car and caused untold havoc and heartache, suddenly pulling up one morning no worse for the wear, in a sparkling new vehicle.

"The folks who led this nation to this financial abyss are the ones being made whole on the taxpayers' dime.  We can look after them all right.  But we can't seem to get credit flowing in any normal way again.  We can't stanch the terrible flow of home foreclosures; and we're not doing nearly enough to address the most critical need of all; putting people back to work."