The restrictions on compensation and business practices; the threat of retroactive, extortionate taxes; the attacks by politically-motivated attorney generals who are abdicating their responsibility to protect citizens; the demonstrations at executives' homes by Acorn thugs; the death threats; and the fear of mob violence are driving financial services employees to leave the firms that have received TARP money for greener and more pleasant pastures.
The New York Times spins this as a good thing, since it is making big Wall Street firms smaller. But if size is a problem for these firms, it isn't due to the size of the number of investment bankers and traders - it is the size of the balance sheet risks they took which are being reduced regardless of employment levels.
Instead, this exodus of talent will mean that these firms are losing employees who will help them recover and make money - reducing the value of the government's investment in them.
No private investor, as a price for its investment in these firms, would demand such restrictions or punishments. They would want to make sure such people were staying, not leaving.
Nothing illustrates more clearly how divorced from reality the government and the Democrats are than this destructive behavior: the country is up in arms over the bailout for the financial services firms, and their actions and policies increase the likely taxpayer losses.
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