As banks gambled on the risky mortgages that helped create the worst financial crisis in generations, the U.S. government handed out millions of dollars in bonuses to regulators at agencies that missed or ignored warning signs that the system was on the verge of a meltdown.
The bonuses, detailed in payroll data released to The Associated Press, are the latest evidence of the government's false sense of security during the go-go days of the financial boom. Just as bank executives got bonuses despite taking on dangerous amounts of risk, regulators got taxpayer-funded bonuses for doing "superior" work monitoring the banks.
The bonuses, released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, were part of a reward program little known outside the government. Some government regulators got tens of thousands of dollars in perks, boosting their salaries by almost 25 percent. Often, though, rewards amounted to just a few hundred dollars for employees who came up with good ideas.
In this article, the main point is that people who were watching over these failing banks who were taking up ridiculus loans were getting bonuses, which i think is quite stupid. I mean, these banks are failing our countries economical system so their bosses get money? I think the money should go to the people who got screwed by the whole situation. This relates to what we are learning because we just went over the whole bank summary of why they are failing and it is included in this article.