A U.K. take on new American Socialism

Sometimes we have to look overseas to find the truth, such as this from Philip Delves Broughton of The Mail Online:

For years now, we have had to listen to bankers attacking Washington for imposing regulations that inhibit the free markets from making even more money.

And all the while, they took exorbitant salaries, justifying them on the grounds of their huge contribution to capitalism.

How bitterly ironic it is, then, to see these one-time freemarketeers becoming socialists overnight.

The schoolyard bullies of Wall Street have gone running to the state for help, pleading to be saved from destruction.

They deserve neither our sympathy nor the billions in taxpayer support they are now receiving.

The truth is that over the past few years, New York's major financial players have created a world of obscene economic excess.

Dick Fuld, head of Lehman Brothers, awarded himself £17.5 million worth of, now worthless, stock.

At Goldman Sachs, more than £9 billion was lavished on employee bonuses.

Bob Willumstad, the boss of AIG, received a guaranteed cash bonus of £2million in 2007, deferred until his sacking yesterday.

What, you might ask, were they being paid for, these men who ignored the most basic kitchen table economics by borrowing 100 or 200 times the value of their capital and whose actions now threaten the Western world with a major slump?