The measure to tax financial firms’ bonuses at the 90% rate passed the House of Representatives yesterday 328-93. The bill moved to the Senate and who knows what’s going to happen to it there. Here’s an ironic thing, one of the biggest bonus payouts in this sordid Wall Street Bonus Saga will not be affected. Merrill Lynch employees received $2.5 billion worth of bonuses after obtaining government bailout funds. Merrill pushed their bonuses out in early December ahead of the firm’s merger with the Bank of America. The proposed legislation applies only to bonuses received after December 31, 2008. What’s going to be the next target of public outrage, you ask? How about this: 13 bailed-out banks failed to pay taxes. The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight announced yesterday that of the 23 largest recipients of TARP funds 13 had $220 million worth of unpaid taxes. According to the Oversight Subcommittee Chairman John Lewis, (D-GA) "To get money from Treasury, banks and others must sign a contract that states they have no material unpaid taxes. Treasury did not ask these banks and companies to turn over their tax records. Treasury relied on the signed statements when it agreed to invest billions of taxpayer dollars." The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, made a speech today at the Independent Bankers convention in Phoenix. The Chairman said that the Fed’s Wednesday decision to invest $1 trillion in mortgage-backed securities and government bonds was aimed at improving conditions in private credit markets and that the Fed is encouraged by the response to this action, so far. Another $1 trillion of Treasury funds will be dispersed in the economy through the TALF program next week, and is meant to make consumer and business loans cheaper. Say what you will, but nobody can accuse "Rambo Fed" of inaction. There are concerns about the long-term effects of the Fed’s actions, but perhaps those are premature, considering we are still in the resuscitation mode. The markets have been wild since the Fed’s announcement on Wednesday, and trending down today, following a fall of over 1% yesterday. By mid-afternoon, the Dow slipped over 120 points, S&P500 and NASDAQ both followed with close to 2% declines. Creating money, like the Fed has done, to purchase government bonds and private sector assets, is a technique called "quantitative easing." Other countries, the UK for instance, have already undertaken such measures. The Chief Economist of the Bank of England was quoted in the Financial Times saying that due to such aggresive measures the Bank is cautiously optimistic about the British economy. The Bank of England's Chief Economist says Britain is already a long way through the recession.