1-Feb-2009-Obama Flays Wall Street For Executive Bonuses

The White House is denouncing Wall Street companies that gave billions of dollars in bonuses while also seeking taxpayer bailout funds to stay afloat.

Earlier in the week, New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reported that the securities industry had paid its employees in New York City $18.4 billion in bonuses last year. However, he also noted that due to the recession, this marked a 44 percent drop from 2007 even though the current bonus amount was still the sixth largest on record.

“The American people understand that we’ve got a big hole that we’ve got to dig ourselves out of — but they don’t like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole even as they’re being asked to fill it up,” said President Obama in response to the news on Thursday.

IN INDIA…

In India after L&T, now B K Modi-led Spice Group wants to acquire a 51% stake in Satyam. Market sources said the IT company will be valued at around Rs 5,000 crore. This means, for 51% stake, the acquirer will have to pay over Rs 2,500 crore. A source at Spice said the company will use its reserves of around Rs 2,100 crore, which it got after selling Modi’s stake in Spice Telecommunication to Aditya Birla Group.