"Frank, author of "
Richistan," says the enormous amounts of money earned by Wall Street elite made them practically a nation unto themselves.
"They just looked at the guy with the bigger house, the nicer Ferrari, the better artwork," he said.
"And it was all competitive spending."
One prominent example is the CEO of Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld. In 2007 alone, according to the executive compensation firm Equilar, he earned total take-home compensation of more than $45 million in salary and bonuses.
Congressional researchers said he earned nearly $500 million from 2000 through 2007.
Fuld told Congress that the failure of his company centered on inaction on the part of governmenthttp://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/17/siu.wall.street/index.html and a loss of confidence in the financial markets."
