It makes a lot sense to tax the heck out windfall bank executive bonuses, and that’s what France and Great Britain are doing.

According to a story over at the Huffington Post, France is going to follow Britain’s lead in implementing a one-time 50 percent tax on bonuses given to bank executives.

In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece written by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the duo wrote:

We have also learned that when crises happen, taxpayers have to cover the costs. It is simply not acceptable for them to foot the bill for losses in a deep downturn, while institutions’ shareholders and employees enjoy all the gains as the economy recovers.

…

[W]e agree that a one-off tax in relation to bonuses should be considered a priority, due to the fact that bonuses for 2009 have arisen partly because of government support for the banking system.

But what’s the US doing to curb the unchecked greed running rampant in its banking system? Nothing.

The New York Times reported yesterday that Goldman Sachs decided that executives won’t get cash bonuses this year but stock instead.

Bowing to calls for restraint in tough economic times, Goldman said that its most senior executives would forgo cash bonuses this year. Instead, the 30 executives will be paid in the form of long-term stock — an arrangement that means they will not get big year-end paydays, but one that could turn out to be enormously lucrative if Goldman’s share price rises over time.

So they won’t get a huge pile of cash today, just an enormous pile of cash later when they sell their stock.

President Barack Obama

President Obama continues to make the same mistake over and over again. From bankers, to members of Congress and even the American people, Obama keeps hoping everyone will just get along and find common ground.

While Obama keeps waiting for everyone do to the right thing, unemployment continues to go up, small businesses are struggling or failing, people are dying from lack of health care, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and bailed out investment bankers are rolling in taxpayer dough.

It’s time for Obama to stop his audacity of hope campaign – what we need is action, leadership and some asses kicked (I’m looking at you Goldman Sachs and AIG).

Perhaps critics of candidate Obama were right when they said he lacked experience. He’s been in the White House for nine months and he’s accomplished nothing.

Health care reform continues to flounder in Congress.

The war in Iraq is still sucking the US Treasury dry and snatching the lives of American soldiers and Iraqi civilians.

In Afghanistan, Obama is thinking about sending more troops, but he appears to be hemming and hawing over that decision.

When the banking industry, which created the current financial mess we’re in thanks to laissez-faire regulation, was on the ropes Obama didn’t take that opportunity to force regulation down their throats, but rather he handed them billions and billions of taxpayer money and hoped that they’d play nice and be cool with regulatory changes later. Wrong.

Before Congress started debating health care reform, the president should have laid out his requirements for a bill he would sign. Obama should have started out with single-payer and made the case for it. There’s a good argument to be made for single-payer, but Obama didn’t even try. Instead, he left it all up to Congress to run wild with and boy did they. Now we’re looking at heavily compromised bills that will likely result in a lot of people paying too much money for health insurance that doesn’t cover anything. Thanks, but no thanks.

And what has he done to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Nothing. We can’t win either of these wars because there is no definition of victory. No one has ever conquered Afghanistan, and neither will the US. And what’s the exit strategy in Iraq? Hope?

Obama’s hope machine has run out of gas. Hope is great, we all need a little bit of it from time to time, but it’s no excuse for inaction. This is politics. It’s partisan.

The time for leadership is now, because let’s face it, pretending that partisan politics is something that can, or should, be avoided is no recipe for success. Obama needs to stop his wishful thinking. Conservatives and liberals will not march on Washington, DC hand-in-hand singing Kumbaya – it’s not going to happen. Wake up or step aside in 2012 to make room for a real leader.

Even while unemployment continues to climb, bailed out companies like J.P. Morgan are still making money. Last quarter, J.P. Morgan made $3.6 billion despite having to write off credit card and mortgage losses. At least someone’s making money, right?

HuffPost has an AP story about J.P. Morgan’s profit-making magic

The Nation’s Katrina Vanden Heuvel wrote today: “These next few months are a time of reckoning.

Every so often in American political history, a window for change opens, and the combination of crisis, leadership, and political movement makes big, positive reforms possible.”

Read Katrina Vandan Heuvel story “The Fight for Financial Reform”

The recession isn’t over, and there’s more evidence that we’re crawling towards another depression. Unemployment continues to increase. Conservative estimates peg unemployment at 9.8 percent and under-employment at 17 percent. The one sector of the economy seeing growth is finance, which has benefited from the taxpayer bailout, while regular folks struggle to make ends meet.

Sooner or later a movement of the people will push back against our rigged so-called “free market” overtly pro-wealthy government agenda. The question is will it happen next year or the year after, but something will have to be done to help real people and not just line the pockets of the Elite. What will the government do to stop it? They can’t trick us into voting because we all have that. Will the government create new social programs to alleviate the financial pain the middle class is feeling? I doubt it. Perhaps a real revolution will not be stopped this time.

Forbes story about unemployment

G-20 Protesters in Pittsburgh Sept. 24, 2009

The Hill reported today that President Obama and the other G-20 members said that the bank bailouts successfully averted another Great Depression; all that’s left is just a bit of regulatory tweaking and we’ll be right as rain. I’m sure they’re right – all government needed to do to fix the economic crisis was to throw billions and billions of dollars at the banks who screwed everything up in the first place.

We’ve become a nation run by banks, insurance companies, Big Pharma, Big Oil and the military industrial complex there to make sure they all get what they need from other countries either through the “free” market or force if necessary. Politicians follow the money, not the votes. How many Americans actually think the banks should have been bailed out?

G-20 leaders say recovery worked, agree to new reforms
Subprime Meltdown: From U.S. Liquidity Crisis To Global Recession
G-20 protesters in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24, 2009