Five Points

Ethics In The News Today

President Obama, speaking of Wall Street executive bonuses, told a meeting in Washington yesterday that "There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses. Now is not that time. And that's a message that I intend to send directly to them, I expect Secretary Geithner to send to them," as reported on ABC News blog.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, "It was the sixth-largest year of bonuses, and I don't think anybody that's opened their 401(k) statement has found out that this was the sixth best year for Wall Street," Gibbs said. "He'll address that in some more rage ...", citing the president's inaugural call for "an ethic of responsibility that we needed to see reinstituted in certain aspects of our country, particularly in our financial institutions."

In other news today, the Wall Street Journal reports that Democratic Senator Tom Daschle, Obama's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, recently paid $140,000 in back taxes he owed on "unreported consulting income and unwarranted charitable deductions" and a luxury car and driver provided by a client firm between 2005 and 2007.

posted by Hal @ 9:06 AM