Epic fail!

@freshyill: The very DEFINITION of epic fail.

Congress has "Subprime Face"

Don't slap their hands too hard, congressmen. They need that hand to write you some more bribes..err...umm. "campaign contributions."

wow, 37 million...guess he cant buy that 8th home for his wife now.

Because they're rich white guys in suits.

For these guys, more like epic win!

115-37 = 78 million. I'm still distracted.

Love this:

"Whatever I have achieved in life has been the result of the unique combination of luck, hard work and opportunity that can only exist in this country."

"I totally fucked up, but since I'm incredibly rich and have friends in the right places, I can totally get away with it! God bless America!"

The funny thing is, companies justify this kind of excess by telling everyone that they need to have competitive salaries to attract top-tier talent. I say let them pass you by when the "top talent" can't even perform better than if they had stuffed all the bank's money under a mattress.

Biggest scam outside of hedge fund managers' tax rates.

@soulman901:
That's the best comment all week.

The sad part is all this is just publicity for those congressmen. It is not about fixing the economy or finding anyone to blame, it is about making them look like they are doing something important (much as with the MLB thing).

Nothing wrong with ARM loans, but and here is the kicker, You have to read and understand the loan before you sign on the dotten line.
Most of the people in trouble didnt invest the proper time into buying a home, instead they listened to the honey coated workds of the broker and signed their name on the dotted line as they watched the movie Dumb and Dumber.
Then they withdrew from the homeside ATM machine and started to cry victim, I was predatoried on.

The salaries of these CEO's are freaking insaine though

I'd give anything to hear one of those guys say, "Well, I need my huge bonus because I failed so spectacularly that I will never get another job anywhere ever again, not even serving hamburgers."

Sadly, it would just be another lie.

I promise not to lie on my mortgage applications anymore, can I have a years worth of free rent please?

But, but, but, it's capitalism at work! The free hand of the market! Deregulation helps everyone, because the best and brightest succeed, right? American workers making 600 times less than these CEOs just need to stop being so damn lazy and abusing my tax dollars!

While looking at an individuals hardship, blame mostly falls on the person who over extended the house that they could afford.

For the losses sustained by the banks, by the lenders, and by the economy, we have no one to blame but these guys who created this bubble. These are the people that created a situation where the benefits of walking away from a home loan are greater than sticking it out. These are the people that hid the risks of loan, and spread the shit throughout the entire economy.

When it comes to the fucking over of banking in this country look no farther than those empty suits.

@dweebster: Campaign contributions, on the federal level, are capped at $2200 per person. They are also a matter of public record. You can look up exactly who has been giving what to whom at the Federal Election Commission's website. [www.fec.gov]

I'm not sure what part of this whole thing I dislike most:

- overcompensating corporate executives

- lack of accountability by afformentioned execs

- bogus congressional "oversite"

Whatever I have not achieved in life has been the result of the unique combination of bad luck, laziness and the limited opportunities that can only exist in this country.

I'm not sure why congress is commenting on this. I thought the housing market for the most part of the private sector. I'm sure Congress can come in and fix all our problems. they always do :)

Can we rewrite this headline?

"Voters to Congress: How come you got paid millions to wreck the economy?"

The ultimate pot/kettle/black.

"ABC News says that over a five-year period, these three CEOs received more than $460 million in compensation."

But those Insider transactions of stock sales are in the $$$ BILLIONS - all cashed in while these CEOs knew the mortgages were tanking. So yeah - that $37 million drop-in-the bucket is soooo distracting me.

@s0crates82: You're right, we've created an infallible system. Glad we can all go home now.

Stop being naive.

@s0crates82: ever hear of bundlers? PACs? 527 groups?

The answer quoted was a total misdirection, and excellently played apparently. The banks and investments did not fail simply because people were overextended on risky mortgage offerings, though of course that is part of the root cause. Instead, it was these very CEOs and the company officers they oversee and direct who repackaged extremely risky mortgages into securities and then did a little mathematical magic to turn them into AAA graded investments. The companies who gave the AAA rating are culpable here as well of course. They knew that simply putting a huge pile of garbage together and saying "only some will fail" was not a true mitigation of risk. It is those derivative investment instruments that caused huge write-downs in the credit market, not simply people buying mortgages that put them underwater. Thoughts?

@ BugMeNot2:

Re: " Because they're rich white guys in suits. "

These kind of racist comments add nothing to this discussion.

It would be the equivilent of me saying the mortgage crisis was caused by:

Fat black welfare receiving women eatin' chikin & poppin' out babies all day ...

Ummm, this is pretty audacious.

I think the headline should also read...

People to congress: how come you got paid millions to wreck the economy?

They are just as complacent as the rest...so is the reserve.

@s0crates82: I was referring more to corporate contributions, which, through loopholes you can drive a truck through, are able to exceed that amount quite handily.

Even the *person* testifying probably has a wife, some kids, nephews, grandchildren, secretaries and other subordinates, etc to multiply that "$2200.00 per person" quite handily until it's "real money" to even you (and them). Not to mention "speaker fees" and "book deals" and all sorts of wiggle room around the edges of ethics.

Don't worry - they'll find some welfare queen with a Cadillac and mansion to blame this whole mess on. Free market self-regulation is still the shining example of wealth creation that Lord Reagan said it was.

@etc: you gotta dance with the ones that brung you. Banks are where they keep the money...

@jtheletter: Now you're just talking gibberish. This self-regulating mortgage model is as rock-solid as my Enron stock.

Looks like they got them all nicely lined up there... time to call in the firing squad.

This is not a question I want Congress asking. This is not a bandwagon I want them jumping (back) on.

If you set your friends' salaries, and they set yours, you'd be paid millions of dollars to fail, too.

"...they helped many Americans who might not otherwise have been able to afford homes."

Lots of those Americans who wouldn't have otherwise been able to afford homes, still couldn't (or can't) afford homes.

Very noble to give up 37 million, but why don't you let some of these people you "helped" come stay at your place for a while after they lose their homes?

The current executive pay structure is so out of whack with reality that it will probably be one of the reasons we end up with a more socialist economy and ends up getting regulated at some point - and it pains me to say the above.

Most of these CEO's get paid millions of dollars up front when they accept the job and then are paid even more if the company stock goes up, even by a little. The problem is it's a one way street, stock goes up and they get millions of dollars. Stock goes down and they don't have to give back any of those millions, they still earn a nice fat salary. This pay structure and the stock market's strange love affair with short term earnings cycles has removed much of the incentive for corporations to make solid long term decisions. It seems almost every decision is made based upon how it impacts this quarter's numbers. The fallout you see in the mortgage industry certainly bears this out, but it's not limited to this industry.

I'm all for fixing this in the future, but I hate to say it but I don't think current agreements should be voided. If that happens, what's to stop them from doing the same to us?

@Mills:

The people who would be hiring them are all their buddies or their buddies' buddies, and are all having their compensation set by their buddies or their buddies' buddies.

@Buran:

I take it you've never had a credit card? They DO do that to us.

And yet some 'expert' somewhere will say the market should be allowed to correct the situation. Yeah, right, don't hold your breath on that one.

DOPES!

"...they helped many Americans who might not otherwise have been able to afford homes."

There are some wonderful programs based out of HUD and the FHA to help people get into affordable homes. I hate when banks did something creepy and tried to pass it off as if they were some sort of altruistic group.

Apartment Complexes REJOICE!

@TechnoDestructo: Excellent point! People often talk about "slippery slopes" regarding this stuff, which engenders lots of eye rolling...but that's a great example of corporations "having it both ways".

E.g., we can change contract terms at any time, but we will charge you early termination fees, force you to opt-out of arbitration, etc. It's an extremely asymmetrical relationship.

@MelL: And that expert will be John Stossel!!

The people that bought these properties and are now losing them really never could afford them to begin with ...

Looks like its time for me to resume buying retal properties again ...

So when will all the individuals who took out mortgages they knew (or reasonably should have expected to know) that they couldn't pay back be hauled before congress had have to answer for their part in "wrecking the economy"?

Epic Fail for sure but...

What business is it of Congress to ask a private corporation how much it pays ANY of it's employees?

@BugMeNot2:

Ahhhhh, a few are black, my dear commentator....so look before you leap.

@whydidnt: I've said it before and I've said it again: I'd like to have limited government oversight, and I'd like to rely on market self-correction, but obviously we just can't have nice things in this country.

You'd think these people wanted their corporations nationalized, or something.