Quit Bailing Them Out!

Obama Calls Wall Street Bonuses ‘Shameful’

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: January 29, 2009
WASHINGTON — President Obama fired a warning shot at Wall Street on Thursday, branding bankers “shameful” for giving themselves $18.4 billion in bonuses as the economy was spinning out of control and the government was spending billions to bail out many of the nation’s most prominent financial firms.
Speaking from the Oval Office with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner by his side, Mr. Obama lashed out at the industry over a report, compiled by the New York State comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, which found that over all, financial executives received the same level of bonuses as they had in 2004, when times were more flush.
It was a pointed and unusual flash of anger — if a premeditated one — from the president, and it suggested that he intended to use his platform to take a hard line against excesses in executive compensation.
“That is the height of irresponsibility,” Mr. Obama said angrily. “It is shameful, and part of what we’re going to need is for folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility.
“The American people understand that we’ve got a big hole that we’ve got to dig ourselves out of, but they don’t like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole even as they’re being asked to fill it up,” Mr. Obama said, adding that “there will be time for them to make profits and there will be time for them to make bonuses. Now is not that time.”
News of the report, and Mr. Obama’s remarks, came a day after the president met privately at the White House with business leaders, including Richard D. Parsons, the new chairman of the board of Citigroup. This week, Citigroup, which received an infusion of taxpayer money last year, canceled its plans, at the administration’s urging, to buy a $50 million business jet.
Mr. Obama did not spare the company in his remarks on Thursday, although he did not mention Citi by name. “Secretary Geithner already had to pull back on one institution that had gone forward with a multimillion-dollar plane it purchased at the same time as they are receiving TARP money,” he said, using the acronym for the government’s $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program, intended to rescue shaky financial firms. “We shouldn’t have to do that, because they should know better.”
Mr. DiNapoli’s report was compiled based on the annual December-January bonus season, mostly through personal income tax collections. In an interview published on Thursday, he said it was unclear if banks had used taxpayer money for bonuses.
“The issue of transparency is a significant one,” Mr. DiNapoli said in the interview, “and there needs to be an accounting about whether there was any taxpayer money used to pay bonuses or to pay for corporate jets or dividends or anything else.”
Earlier Thursday, the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said Mr. Obama had a one-word reaction to the report: “Outrageous.” He announced in advance that Mr. Obama would put forth his views in person, which he did at the end of a meeting with Mr. Geithner.

Are we supposed to be stupid here people? They get these bonuses off our backs. The bailout's and high interest rates are raping this nation! Mr. President if you want to make a difference then try them all for treason. They are destroying more familys than any amount of terrorists ever could imagine. Enough is enough! I say instead of throwing the tea in the harbour we throw executives from the tops of their buildings. The whole time they are padding their own pockets they are buying up banks in order to become a monopoly. Last I checked this practice is illegal. Want to make a difference? Close them down! Put them out of work and take their money in mass quantities. Make them live as they have made the rest of us. Hang them from the lamp posts up and down Wall Street as warning to all. Prove for once that we are all created equal and a man isn't judged by his pocket book. Oh I forgot I have very little faith in this because you Mr. Obama are one of them. Show me your not!

I Have To Do It, I Declare War!

This is the anonymous. This is the guttless critic that hides in his or her own home and work trying to get under my skin. I guess they have succeeded a tad because here I am having to post about them. The funny part is they are friends and neighbors that are supposed to be so much more mature that I am. All I see is a mindless rant from critics that don't even believe their own rants. That is right you guttless cowards you don't even have the courage or conviction to stand behind your words. You are sad and pathetic due to the fact that the greatest thrill in your misserable little lives is to bring pain to others. Do you ever say anything of worth? Do you ever contribute to a conversation? Or do you just enjoy being a cancer on an artistic and free thinking world? Many of you need to sit with my mother and father because there is one thing they know about me that you all need to learn. The harder you push me and try and stop me the harder I fight to continue my ways. I'm an asshole that way. So keep it up. Really tell me I'm horrible with little to no explanation why, call me gay or a druggie or whatever other false and meritless accusation you would like to throw my way. Just when you do realize that I shed no tears in fact quite the opposite. When I am successful I will have to put each and every one of you faceless in my acknowledgements because you pushed me to get here. Thank you zombie people because without you I probably would have quit long ago.

In answer to an anonymous claim earlier I am no follower. I actually spend most my spare time doing that which the rest of you have somehow forgotten how to. I spend time with your kids, help them with their homework, coach their little league teams, take them on trips to skate parks, or lazer tag, or concerts, but mostly I just express an interest that isn't that hard to accomplish. At the end of the day myself and a few quality parents of this town have spent the time to help shape the youth and prove that people do care. One day maybe you will have time to do the same if you ever grow a spine, get off your keyboards and stop bitching about the world and actually do something to change it. I know it's hard to throw a ball with a bag on your head but a little practice and you may some day get it.

Gonzo Day?

Thanks to all who participated today in Rabbit Hole day in honor of Lewis Carrol's 177th birthday. I have found several stories that put mine to shame and think that we all gained a bit from looking through the mirror at ourselves. February 20th marks the passing of Hunter S. Thompson and I perpose we start a new honorary day (I haven't been able to find that anyone has yet so what the hell I'm a trend setter). I say we call it Gonzo Day and celebrate much in the same fassion. Find anything in life you would like to write about and then husk it and show what makes it tick. Remember Hunter is famous for his non-fictional style being told through a hazey and somewhat grotesque way so don't hold back. Let lose on the world and scream for the change that is needed. Honor a great man's memory by not being comliant for one day in your life. It may feel good to let loose and you might find that something needs exposed that you didn't realize before.

My Rabbit Hole Story

Before I begin I want to say this was way harder than I thought it would be. I write every day in about every genera so to find one that wouldn't be what I write about every day was very hard. I write history, politics, love letters, songs, poems, fiction, about myself, about sports, letters to God, and basically life lessons in general. What else could there be. In fact I thought about it for a bit and thought maybe my Rabbit Hole is to write nothing at all, but I think that is the cowards way out. So I decided to go with fiction in honor of Lewis Carrol Iand I'm writing a genera that I don't really like very often so we will give it a try and if you are looking for a great read I warn you this is probably not it. Enjoy or don't once again I don't do it for you. The dust settles on the windy streets just in order to get kicked up once more by the hot, dry breeze. The wind itself could be soothing if not for the coarse sands scratching against skin as it whistles by. People gather close to door and window as the sun nears it's peak, bringing forth the brightest time of the day. Buzzards circle overhead waiting on their meal as their figure eights dance in the cloudless sky. The long hand of the clocktower creaks and moans out in pain as it lurches forward nearing it's time of reconing. The lone man stands in the sod road, sweat dripping from the tip of his nose but evaporating before hitting the ground. Thoughts of luck spring through his mind as the opponent doesn't seem to be showing meaning he may yet live to see another day. Alas this feeble hope shatters and blows away as a dust cloud in the distance nears revealing several large men riding their steeds of battle."Shall I run?" crosses the man's mind as his trembling hand shakes against his trusty Colt. "It will be hard to live with being called yellow but at least I will live."Horses come to a halt fifty yards ahead of him as the notorious gang dismounts laughing and already praising their leader for a win he has not yet earned. The large worn and seasoned gunslinger spits his chew in the direction of his opponent as he motions his men towards the saloon. They cackle their taunts as they make their way to the watering hole each trying to get the best view of the mayhem about to ensue."You ready boy?" yells the large outlaw brushing his tan duster to the side reavealing the six shooter underneath. His beaten black hat is pulled low yet it still can not hide the firey rage burning in his eyes. Clicking comes from the well used yet still silver spurs afixed to his boots that look as though they have never seen a pollish."W-we don't h-have to do this," yells back the poor dirt farmer, so poor he had to borrow the gun and owns no hat himself. He squints and says a silent prayer to the sound of the decrepid clock once again clacking towards the end. "I will take my family and go. You can have our land. The only livestock we own has gone dry with the drought so it isn't worth much but it isn't like it's costing you anything. I'm giving it to you.""You don't give me nuthin," yells the angry ruffian back at his feeble opponent, "I take what I want, hell your land is already mine your just too stupid to know it." He spits again then a cruel smirk crosses his face. "Tell you what since you're in the givin' mood how about you let me have that sow of a wife a yers and I'll let you leave with your son. Coarse the boy will grow up knowin' his pappy is yella' but ye'll live. Don't worry though me'n the boys'll take real good care of 'er, and it aint like yer boy can look up to ya now."The bandits in the saloon laugh as they make vulger gestures at the poor man still shaking in the street. Their leader smiles proud with his insults at his men before returning his stare at the broken shell in front of him."Ah hell, might as well just kill ya anyways, then I'll go see your philly regardless." he spits grabbing his own crotch.Time seems to freeze as the man instantly stops shaking. He feels a new awareness rush over himself brought on by the fear for his family. A spark has been lit deep within his soul that he had never realized was there before. In unison the clock ticks forward striking the bell as the colt is yanked from it's holster firing a single round. Lead spirals in the air in quick revolutions before finding it's target dead in the heart. The slow motion unpauses as the bandit removes his hand from his waistline raising it to his chest to find a warm gooey liquid spurting forth. Dropping to his knees his face goes cold before planting itself in the dirt. The crew stares slack jawed unbelieving what they have just seen. Turning towards the victor they hear the clock grind forward once more as the final five shots ring out with it, killing each one of them in a single blow.Townspeople come quickly out of their hiding places to see if their eyes have lied. Advancing, the farmer hands the pistol and belt back to the saloon owner as he approaches his prey. Flipping the lifeless body to it's back he pulls the gun belt from the mouthy bandit and secures it to his own waste. Dusting the black hat he places it on his own head and stands once more. Looking down at the man he had feared with all his life moments before he smiles at the thought of how easy it had been to beat him. Spitting on the corpe he says, "Guess you should have left me with nothing to fight for," before turning and walking home to those he love.

I Found a Use For Guantanamo Bay

How things are going!

Don't worry Spidey if you keep working hard then you'll get laid off and never afford the rest of your costume!

Merrill Lynch pays out $4 bn in bonuses covered by TARP funds (Updated 2X)
by Uncle Bob
Thu Jan 22, 2009 at 08:21:37 AM PST
After all the abuses of law, morals and ethics by the Bush administration over the last 8 years, I never thought that my outrage meter could get pegged again. Wrong.
Uncle Bob's diary :: ::
The Financial Times reported that Merrill Lynch accelerated its normal time schedule for awarding bonuses and distributed $ 4 billion dollars on Dec 29, just 3 days before its takeover by Bank of America. At the same time Merrill posted $15 billion in losses for the fourth quarter. The total compensation for Merrill Lynch employees in 2008 was $15 billion.
That’s way more than just an outsized sense of entitlement, that’s flat-out stealing. And the money for this comes from, you guessed it, the US government. The Bank of America was prepared to back out of the deal once the size of the Merrill Lynch loss became apparent. The deal was completed only after guarantees of government money by the US Treasury.
This has got to stop. These are the same people who created the god-forsaken mess in the financial markets and yet are continuing to flaunt their greed and incompetence and literally daring anyone to do anything about it.
Unfortunately, the history of Obama’s economic advisors does not give one a general sense of relief or change that you can believe in. As Professor Willem Buiter of the London School of Economics said yesterday, while commenting on the general trajectory of bailouts in the UK:
This is very much in the US tradition, promoted by the US Treasury, the Fed and the FDIC, of maximising moral hazard for a given amount of immediate crisis fire-fighting. In the incoming Obama administration, both Treasury secretary Tim Geithner and NEC chair Larry Summers have had many years of experience, in the US and all over the globe, throwing good money after bad in pointless bail-out packages. The trio of Ben Bernanke, Geithner and Summers are likely to produce a veritable moral hazard monsoon.
Indeed, today’s report seems to verify that. One can only hope that Obama will set the tone rather than let his advisors do it for him.
Updated: The original post contained an error concerning the amount of total compensation vs the bonus compensation. That's been fixed.
Updated 2X: There has been considerably commentary about the taxation issue around bonuses and I likely stand corrected. My assumption (and I think it's a fair assumption) was that the lion's share of the bonuses were going to trader's and fund managers and that these folks were granted long term capital gains treatment due to the "carried interest" exclusion that works so well for hedge fund managers. Perhaps not. I've removed the offending paragraph so that others may focus on the issue of bonuses being offered, effectively at the same rate as in a profitable year, with a guarantee provided by the government to enable those bonuses for an otherwise bankrupt business.







Oh but it doesn't end there.







Merrill Lynch CEO Spent $1,220,000 On Office Renovation As Company Prepared To Burn
By Ben Popken, 12:29 PM on Thu Jan 22 2009, 20,484 views
Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain spent over $1.22 million to renovate his office in early 2008, just as his firm was getting ready to slash thousands of jobs, cut back on spending and dump businesses. Here's this douchebag's big-ticket tally of personal aggrandizement in the midst of financial crisis:
$800,00 to hire celebrity designer Michael Smith. He's interior-decorating Obama's White House. For $100,000. Mixing in items from Target.$87,000 for a fucking area rug. I think I could buy all of the area rugs in stock at my local IKEA for $87,000, and have enough money left over to buy all my fellow shoppers an all-you-can eat Swedish Meatball feast. Then invest the remainder in high-yield moon-backed derivatives.$87,000 two guest jerkface chairs$44,000 another goddamn area rug$37,000 six chairs for private dining room. Who has a dining room in their office?$35,000 "commode on legs." I'm guessing that's a claw-footed toilet. Bad choice. Those gather dust underneath like nobody's business, let me tell you. Update: Actually it's a chest-of-drawers on legs. Too bad no one told me that before I took a crap in it.$28,000 four stupid curtains$25,000 mahogany pedestal table. I think my brother just found one of those on the curb on garbage day recently.$24,000 "Regency Chairs." These are the kind of chairs that you use to line walls and corners but no one actually sits in and some day they end up in the Met and people are like, wow, that looks like a well-preserved, expensive, uncomfortable chair.$18,000 "George IV Desk." You can find George I desks just as good on eBay, the advances in the later models are mainly cosmetic.$16,000 custom coffee table. Shellacked with the blood of virgin Peruvian tribe-boys.$13,000 chandelier in private dining room. Really fun to swing on.$11,000 fabric for "Roman Shade." That's a euphemism for something dirty, right?$5,000 mirror in private dining room. It's the one from Snow White.$5,000 40 yards of fabric for wall panels. That's actually a pretty good deal. In pesos.$2,700 6 wall sconces. Sconces are for nancies. Real titans of industry use torches.$1,400 "Parchment waste can." Guess they were out of vellum.
Aren't you feeling good now that the government gave Bank of America a big check to buy these guys? It was vital to the national interest to prevent the collapse of the interior decorating industry.







Then they do take a step in the right direction, just a tad too late.







Bank Of America Fires Former Merrill Lynch CEO
By Meg Marco, 12:59 PM on Thu Jan 22 2009, 7,164 views
It seems that Bank of America didn't really appreciate that unexpected $15.4 billion dollar 4th quarter loss by Merrill Lynch — because its former CEO, John Thain has been shown the door.
From Bloomberg:
Thain, who in September negotiated the sale of Merrill with Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis, “agreed his situation was not working out and that he should resign,” said Robert Stickler, a Bank of America spokesman, in an e-mail.
Bank of America has been taking a lot of heat for purchasing Merrill Lynch, a deal that forced Bank of America to ask for a "second multibillion dollar investment from the government as it absorbed the mounting losses at the New York-based investment bank," says the AP.
The Wall Street Journal is even speculating that Bank of America and Citigroup may have to be nationalized.
We wonder who'll get his fancy ass office.







Honestly now this man should be tried for treason and hung in the middle of Wall Street as a reminder of what is to come if you take advantage of the American people. And others from ML and Bank of America should be as well. No one can tell me he just secretly snuck all this designer gear in on our dime. If you believe that is the case then you are a fool. I mean sure he was fired but if this is his office then I highly doubt he lives in a one room apartment decorated by the local Goodwill. Take everything he has and put him in the streets like he has with so many others. I could sell off everything I own and still come up short to buy his god damned rug. Seriously people we need public execution for instances just like these. I know he isn't the only one either. Every time a CEO approves a lay off his pay check needs to be examined to see how many of the unneeded employees it could feed. I never went to business school but I learned from some of the greatest men my town has ever known. You must pay your employees and vendors first then comes your paycheck. In some cases, including mine, that leaves very little for you Mr.CEO but that is the responsability that comes with running a company. With great power comes great responsability right? I think I learned that in the fourth grade from Spiderman.

Title The Picture or Tell Me What You See

I thought this could be a fun game for all. I found this on another blog and thought that everyone should look into it and take a moment to see how they feel about it. Go on you can even post anonymous if you would like.

Can You Go As Far As It Is Needed?