Barack Obama has now said that executives of these failing banks should forfeit their bonuses:

Asked whether bank executives should forgo their bonuses, Obama said: “I think they should.” He also said it would show they are taking responsibility.

“I think that if you are already worth tens of millions of dollars, and you are having to lay off workers, the least you can do is say, I’m willing to make some sacrifice as well,” Obama said.

It seems like such a simple idea – one that makes sense. Well it is. The reason this is newsworthy is because you would never hear something like this from Bush or a Republican. They would feel that it was “interfering with the free market”. Of course when the free market is on life support from the tax payer, then those freedoms need boundaries.