President Obama says free enterprise should reward hard work, but that "it does offend our values" when executives get huge bonuses at the same time their companies are getting taxpayer bailouts to stay alive. So his so-called "pay czar" has cracked down on executive compensation at AIG, General Motors and five other companies. At the same time, the Federal Reserve has issued guidelines to discourage short-term risk-taking, prevent pay practices that endanger the long-term health of American banks, and reward long-term successes. Are the real villains being punished? Will unprecedented government interventions protect against another recession or is free enterprise the best protection after all?
Profits of Doom: Breaking Wall Street's Addiction to Greed
Credits
Guests:
- Rick Newman - Yahoo Finance - @rickjnewman
- Sam Pizzigati - Associate Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
- Tom Donlan - Barron's - @barronsonline
- J.W. Verret - Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason University