Mayor Bloomberg is a very smart man and should have seen this coming (“Banks Blast Back,” Jan. 17).
Bloomberg would do well to recognize before it’s too late that New York, the banking center of the world, is a target for President Obama.
Obama sees New York as part of the corrupt and immoral private sector that is less important than his agenda.
Obama sees banks as businesses with assets to be redistributed.
Robert Sanfilippo
Roslyn Heights
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If Bloomberg actually said Obama’s bank tax is “aimed squarely” at the city’s lifeblood, he either doesn’t understand the rationale for the tax, is misstating the notion of “aimed squarely” or is trying to justify why the city’s budget hasn’t been reined in.
This from someone who has no problem taxing individuals who can much less afford it.
If an industry is giving people “obscene” bonuses, it’s a reasonable sign that the industry has determined it can afford it.
Or the bonus money is really not from the failing industry but from the average taxpayer.
Steven Wolosker
Manhattan
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This administration wants to tax the banks, because it views the recent bonuses as excessive.
Where were the Democrats and Obama when Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick were collecting extravagant bonuses and compensation from government-run Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
Some estimate that, due to the multiplier effect, a $100 billion tax on the banking system will remove almost $1 trillion from the economy — money that won’t be available for loans and credit.
Tax and spend. This is change we can believe in?
Alan Kull
Oxford, NJ