Government bank auditors also got big bonuses

Banks weren't the only ones giving big bonuses in the boom years before the worst financial crisis in generations, according to payroll data released to The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act. 

The data shows that the government also was handing out millions of dollars to bank regulators, rewarding "superior" work even as an avalanche of risky mortgages helped create the meltdown. The payments are the latest evidence of the government's false sense of security during the go-go days of the financial boom. Just as bank executives got bonuses despite taking on dangerous amounts of risk, regulators got taxpayer-funded bonuses despite missing or ignoring signs that the system was on the verge of a meltdown.

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