The NYT reports it will be difficult to recover bonuses that Wall Street banks paid to their top executives.
The article concludes by telling readers:
"Despite the current outcry in Washington, some compensation experts said Congress missed a chance to impose strict limits on 2008 bonuses last fall, when the government embarked on its rescue plan.
'The time to say ‘no bonuses’ has come and gone,' said Brian Foley, an executive compensation consultant in White Plains. 'The horse is out of the barn and over the horizon.'"
It is worth noting that many of the opponents of the TARP as it passed made exactly this point at the time. The leadership in Congress and the White House chose to ignore this concern raised by TARP opponents. The failure to restrict executive compensation on Wall Street through the TARP was a deliberate decision by the Congressional leadership. It was not some sort of oversight, as this discussion implies.
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