Why Bashing the Bankers is a bad Idea

... because you'll need them to cooperate in the future. Like when the Geithner plan is unveiled and it turns out you want the bankers and hedge funds to help out buying toxic assets.

(S)ome executives at private equity firms and hedge funds, who were briefed on the plan Sunday afternoon, are anxious about the recent uproar over millions of dollars in bonus payments made to executives of the American International Group.

Some of these executives have told administration officials that they would participate only if the government guaranteed that it would not set compensation limits on the firms, according to people briefed on the conversations.

The executives also expressed worries about whether disclosure and governance rules could be added retroactively to the program by Congress, these people said.

Retroactive changes in the rules? From this Congress and Administration? Impossible!

If I ran a hedge fund or was a big investor I would run as fast as I could in the opposite direction. There are plenty of investment options out there right now. I would never get involved with these capricious nitwits if I could possibly help it.