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Bailout bonuses: Does the public have a right to know?

Is it anybody’s business how much money you make?

When it comes to Wall Street and the meltdown that whacked financial markets and emptied investors’ pockets, the normal rules of etiquette don’t seem to apply.

Wall Street salaries seem to be everybody’s business lately. Nevertheless, the Obama administration’s pay czar may try to keep a large portion of the compensation plans he is reviewing under wraps.

It’s Kenneth Feinberg‘s job to review salaries at the biggest corporate recipients of government bailout funds.

How much of his report will become public is the multimillion dollar question.

Privacy laws and fears that highly compensated executives will become targets for an angry public argue for limiting disclosure.

Bold move or socialism?

The ax has fallen on GM chief Rick Wagoner’s neck. With one swing, President Obama put an end to Wagoner’s reign at the helm of the struggling auto giant. GM had asked the government for another bailout amounting to a further $16 billion in loans. Instead, the Obama administration pledged only to fund GM’s operations for another 60 days while it develops a sweeping restructuring plan.

Obama’s team also took aim at Chrysler, pushing it toward a merger, and threatened bankruptcy for both Detroit giants.

What do you think? Is it about time the government took forceful action or do the moves smack of socialism? And why go after the automakers but leave the management at failing banks in place?

Is housing rescue plan enough?

President Barack Obama’s much-anticipated plan to deal with the U.S. housing crisis aims to help as many as 9 million families avoid foreclosure on their homes, one of the root causes of the global financial meltdown.

The Obama plan will involve government subsidies to mortgage servicers and lenders to encourage them to lower payments for borrowers in distress.

The aim is to bring mortgage payments to a more affordable range of around 31 percent of borrowers’ incomes.

At the end of last year, just over 9 percent of all home loans in the United States were in arrears or already in foreclosure, the Mortgage Bankers Association has said.

A total of 8.1 million U.S. homes, or 16 percent of all households with mortgages, could fall into foreclosure by 2012, according to a report by Credit Suisse.

Is Obama’s rescue plan enough to curb the tide of soaring foreclosures? Share your thoughts.

Lining up for a bailout

The auto industry’s Christmas present from the government — in the form of a $1 billion loan to General Motors and a $5 billion stake in GMAC — may have left other industries hoping that the giving season isn’t over yet.

The steel industry is pressing President-elect Barack Obama to boost the flagging demand for U.S.-made steel by instituting a “buy American” clause in his infrastructure stimulus package, the New York Times reported.

“As steel production goes — and it is now in collapse — so will go the national economy,” writes the New York Times, referencing the maxim once applied to The Big Three automakers.

But why stop at manufacturing industries? Rep. Frank Nicastro of Connecticut and some of his fellow legislators want to save two local papers, The Bristol Press and The Herald, which are hanging by a thread after their publisher said it cannot afford to keep them.

Which companies are really too big to fail? If you were writing the check, who would you bail out?

(Pictured above: Workers secure a steel beam at a construction site on 8th Avenue and 42nd Street in New York, April 21, 2008. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)

Who will sit in the Car Czar’s chair?

Democratic lawmakers and the White House are finalizing a $15 billion bailout for the crumbling U.S. auto industry. One of the key elements will likely be the naming of a federal official to lord over the industry. The job won’t be an easy one. Reuters points out the “Car Czar” will have to deal with angry creditors, fearful suppliers and an entrenched auto union. Then there’s the job of motivating CEOs who will be making a whopping $1 a year (yes, $1 – that’s not a typo).

“It requires someone who knows how to lead and someone who knows how to listen,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Shaiken suggested former Congressman David Bonior, who also managed the presidential campaign of John Edwards. Other names being floated include Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric. How about Warren Buffett? He’s made oodles of money and seems like a fun guy. Or John McCain – sure he’s still a senator but he did come “this” close to being president and maybe he’d bring Sarah Palin in to handle the day-to-day details. That would certainly be good for Tina Fey and Saturday Night Live.

But what do you think? Who should get the job and why?

Will Congress pass a bailout bill?

U.S. lawmakers neared agreement on a massive Wall Street bailout plan on Thursday with more protections for taxpayers, giving world stock prices a boost even as data showed the U.S. economy slowing.

Lawmakers hope to reach a bipartisan consensus on a proposed $700 billion rescue for U.S. financial firms in time for a meeting at the White House Thursday afternoon.

“The idea of a rescue plan has gotten a public airing. Now it’s time for both sides to roll up their sleeves, get together in a room and hash this out once and for all,” Charles Schumer, the New York Democrat who chairs the congressional Joint Economic Committee, said in a written statement.

Do you think Congress will pass a bailout bill by its scheduled recess on Friday, continue to meet through the weekend, or give up and go on vacation?

Leave your answers in comments, or log into the news prediction Hubdub to place a virtual wager.

Will US Congress pass some form of a financial bailout bill before their recess in late September?

Is the bailout enough to right-foot the banks?

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are urging Congress to act swiftly on a $700 billion bailout plan for the financial system.

Politico.com quotes a former Federal Reserve official as saying, “the alternative is complete financial Armageddon and a great depression.”

Hugo Duncan writes in the Evening Standard that if the bailout fails, “banking stocks are likely to drag shares around the world into the mire sparking further panic over the financial system and state of the economy. It would make recession in America and Britain ever more likely, with house prices and standards of living falling and repossessions and unemployment rising.”

Assuming that Congress approves the Bernanke-Paulson bailout plan, do you think it is enough to stabilize the banking sector?

The impact on Main Street from the crisis on Wall Street is another open question. “How long it will take the banks to restore health to their balance sheets, raise capital and start lending money again,” Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group, tells Nick Carey. ”That could take a year and credit conditions may start to improve in the second half of 2009.”

For full coverage of the crisis in credit, click here.