As reeling banks and other financial institutions reached out with one arm to accept hundreds of billions of dollars in bailout money from American taxpayers last year, they reached out with the other to give their workers billions of dollars in bonuses.

Despite the outrage expressed by people across the country, nothing could be done by the government to stop this gross display of public-be-damned avarice.

Wall Street said it had to pay the bonuses or risk losing talented people. That did not go over well with those on Main Street who pointed at Wall Street when assessing where to lay the blame for their own and the countryÕs financial upheaval.

But Wall Street obviously has a thick skin. The tens of billions of dollars it is budgeting for this yearÕs round of bonuses comes at a time when national unemployment is nearing 10 percent (13.9 percent in Clark County).

Yet the financial institutions, bailed out by the Treasury Department, are making some money again through trades and investments. Rather than being sensitive to the overall state of the economy, however, they are letting the good times roll — for themselves — just as they did in the pre-recession days.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that many of the 7.2 million jobs the country has shed since the recession began in December 2007 may never come back.

President Barack Obama opposed the extravagant bonuses last year as president-elect and he opposes them again this year. His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, speaking Sunday on CNNÕs ÒState of the Union,Ó criticized Wall Street for planning the lavish bonuses while lobbying against the administrationÕs proposed banking regulations, which were drafted to prevent another recession.

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod appeared Sunday on ABCÕs ÒThis WeekÓ and called the bonuses offensive, adding that banks should instead be doing more to support lending — a vital, but neglected, function that creates jobs.

Our view is that Wall Street, with its unconscionable policies, is demonstrating why it needs to come under tighter federal regulation.