It appears that Goldman Sachs is planning to give Lloyd Blankfein a $100 million bonus this year.
We need to make the squid into some serious calamari.
Category: Corruption
Our Supreme Court
Click for full size
We’re Beatrice
I have no clue as to who did the Photoshop® of this, but whoever did this, let me say, “Well Done, Sir”.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!?!?!? I Agree With Ben Stein?!?!?!
I must be wrong.
But Ben Stein, the most overrated intellect in America is saying that Goldman Sachs has been ripping off its clients, and that it is wrong:
That is, it, Goldman, has a legal duty to not take advantage of the people to whom it acts as a fiduciary. It also has that duty because of the way it presents itself to the world — with all of its leaders’ talk about the Goldman Sachs “culture”. They don’t present that culture as the value system of Louis “Lepkele” Buchalter of Murder, Incorporated or of Meyer Lansky or Bugsy Segal or The Purple Gang. They sell the company as a prestige house with solid, client-driven values. If they act to betray that trust, it’s illegal.
Either something is profoundly wrong with the universe, or Matt Taibbi and I are wrong about the squid.
I’ll go with the universe hiccuping.
I guess that Ben Stein gets to be right once a millennium, but don’t ask me when he was right in the 1900s.
Why US Broadband Sucks
Click for full size
The Phone Company*
Let’s look at Maine, where the terminally incompetent telco Farpoint is aggressively lobbying against Maine accepting a $24.5 million grant from the federal government to build out broadband networks:
Last month, NTIA gave Great Works internet in Maine $24.5 million toward a fiber optic network. The grant is a classic public/private partnership for a middle mile project that includes, among others the University of Maine.
Fairpoint, Maine’s primary rural LEC, has objected to this “undue competition with the private sector.” This would be funny, given how Fairpoint has become the poster child for the failure of the private sector to deliver on its big promises to rural communities. But Fairpoint’s talking points have ended up in legislation filed by Maine State Senator Lisa Marrache (D-Waterville) and Maine State Rep. Stacey Fitts (R-Pittsfield). Despite the fact that middle mile build out will help companies like Fairpoint (while also helping their competitors), we get the usual ideologically-driven nonsense about how the public sector ought to know its place and leave the driving to the all-knowing and super-efficient firms like Fairpoint — assuming Maine’s rural residents like the prospect of waiting for a bankrupt company [Yes, literally. Farpoint went Chapter 11] to satisfy its creditors and bring them broadband.
While this money would improve access and service for everyone, it would make it easier for companies to compete against Farpoint, the incumbent, so they are fighting this tooth and nail, because their service has been so unbelievably horrible that they know that they will hemorrhage customers if anything near free and fair.
That’s what this is all about.
There is more money in locking out competitors than there is in improving service, so US broad band, driven by private interests, is slower, more expensive, less reliable, and less accountable.
Damn, sounds a lot like out healthcare system.
This Should Scare the Crap Out of You
Josh Marshall got a letter from an anonymous staffer, and while the whole letter is profoundly disturbing, the excerpt that Mr. Marshall put before the break is f%$#ing terrifying:
The worst is that I can’t help but feel like the main emotion people in the caucus are feeling is relief at this turn of events. Now they have a ready excuse for not getting anything done. While I always thought we had the better ideas but the weaker messaging, it feels like somewhere along the line Members internalized a belief that we actually have weaker ideas. They’re afraid to actually implement them and face the judgement of the voters. That’s the scariest dynamic and what makes me think this will all come crashing down around us in November.
This is a recipe for disaster for the Democratic party, and by extension, for the country, because people want politicians to stand for something, even if it’s wrong, and the Republicans waiting in the wings are far less moderate than Bush/Cheney/Rove.
Think about that: Republicans in power who would make us fondly remember the moderation of George W. Bush.
You may change your underwear now.
Because It’s Not a War on Islam
Well, they have just discovered that sniper scopes purchased for the Marine Corps contain verses from the Christian bible:
Following an ABC News report that thousands of gun sights used by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan are inscribed with secret Bible references, a spokesperson for the Marine Corps said the Corps is ‘concerned’ and will discuss the matter with the weapons manufacturer.
“We are aware of the issue and are concerned with how this may be perceived,” Capt. Geraldine Carey, a spokesperson for the Marine Corps, said in a statement to ABC News. “We will meet with the vendor to discuss future sight procurements.” Carey said that when the initial deal was made in 2005 it was the only product that met the Corps needs.
However, a spokesperson for CentCom, the U.S. military’s overall command in Iraq and Aghanistan, said he did not understand why the issue was any different from U.S. money with religious inscriptions on it.
(emphasis mine)
Ummm………Because inscribing Christian verses on weapons that you kill Muslims with will make it that much more difficult for US troops to train with Muslim troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and because it’s likely to inspire more violence against American troops, because it is another piece of evidence that Islamic radicals will use to show that this is a war against Islam?
That kind of fits the definition of, “Contrary to good order and discipline,” doesn’t it.
The Marines get it, the US Army doesn’t.
Interestingly enough, it’s the the Army, along with the US Air Force in which the bulk of complaints about discrimination by aggressive Evangelicals have been reported.
It appears that this has been common knowledge among gun enthusiasts for about 4 years, but the military never noticed what the Trijicon corporation was doing.
More Ass Covering by the Fed
It’s clear that Bernanke does not want the rock turned over to see what slimy things live underneath, and so we have some more measures taken by the Federal Reserve to try to mute calls for an audit, and perhaps a re-evaluation of the role and powers of the institution.
They have implemented more consumer friendly credit card rules (also here and here), and now Bernanke is saying that the central bank would welcome an audit of their dealings with AIG by the GAO.
In the latter quote, the pertinent quote is this:
The invitation does not represent any procedural changes, as GAO could have reviewed the issue without such an invitation. But the does letter highlight the Fed’s sensitivity to mounting criticism to the events leading up to the bailout.
So, if the Federal Reserve has no choice, then they will write a nice letter saying, “Okily dokily, neighbor.”
I expect that if the GAO conducts an audit, it will take crowbars and explosives to actually extract any meaningful information though.
Jon Stewart is a F%$#ing Genius
Banker bonuses:
H/t Calculated Risk.
A Loophole in the Bribery Statutes
So, Chris Dodd, after a disastrous run for the Presidency, and 2 banking scandals, one of which was created by Tim Geithner, acknowledged reality, and announced that he was not running for reelection.
The question would then be how would this change his positions on banking reform?
One possibility is that, no longer needing the campaign donations, he would get harder on banks, and the other would be that he would go easier on banks, because he would be looking for post-Senate employment.
Well, we have our answer, and it’s the latter.
The murmurs are that Dodd is looking at dropping an independent consumer financial protection agency entirely from the Senate banking reform bill the excuse is that he is looking for bipartisan support, but the fact is that anything that republicans will support will be completely toothless.
This isn’t just a “rearranging deck chairs” thing. If the agency is not independent, then it will be attached to another agency, most likely Treasury, which is largely an arm of the banks by design, and they will have no control over the budget and personnel requests.
So, Chris Dodd is well on his way to getting a high paying gig with a bank, or a law firm for the banks.
It’s depressing. He was my 1st or 2nd choice in the 2008 primaries, but much like Edwards, it appears that he has feet of clay.
Here’s a Shocker
Monsanto’s genetically modified corn has been linked to organ damage:
In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto’s GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.
When you give enormous guaranteed monopoly profits by allowing the patenting of genes and species, those profits guarantee that safety is a secondary concern.
Quote of the Day
It’s from the “about” section of a blog called Paul Kedrosky’s Infectious Greed:
Even further back in time, Dr. Kedrosky was one of the first technology equity analysts at a major brokerage firm. Back before there were such things as credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, and subprime mortgages, we vandalism-loving greed-heads on Wall Street were forced to take down capitalism the hard way — by selling over-valued technology companies to an unsuspecting public via initial public offerings. While it eventually worked out (c.f., the tech crash of 2000), the next generation of Wall Street-ers learned from our inefficiency and took down the global money grid in half the time it took us to mess up Nasdaq. Lesson learned.
Needless to say, I put him in my feed reader.
H/t The Big Picture for the catch.
Good Point
When we look at Pat Robertson, and his delusional bits of wing-nut spew, it is important to note that he is, and remains a very significant figure in American politics:
You can sneer all you want at Pat Robertson. You can condemn him all you want. And I’ll join right in. He deserves everything you care to say about him, and much, much more. He is a seriously disturbed man.
But you dismiss and ignore him at your peril. Remember: this man used to call up the f@#&ing president of the United States. And he got through. And the president listened to him.
You ever had that kind of access to power? Got it now? Thought not. Me, neither. You got his hundreds of millions of dollars? Got millions of fans giving you hard-earned- bucks? Nope, I don’t have them either.
(emphasis original, @#& mine)
The fact that people do not take him seriously, even though he could, for many years, pick up the phone and in a few minutes have a conversation, or arrange a meeting, with the President United States is a not trivial thing.
People who should not be allowed to use a butter knife are achieved positions of outsize influence in the United States, and more often than not, these days at least, they speak to, and for, Republicans.
Not Enough Bullets: Shareholders Got a Gun Edition
JPMorgan Allots $378,600 Per Investment Bank Worker:
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second- largest U.S. bank, set aside $9.3 billion for compensation and benefits for investment-bank employees in 2009, enough to pay each worker in that unit $378,600.
The reserve is 33 percent of the investment bank’s revenue for the year, compared with 62 percent in 2008, New York-based JPMorgan said today on its Web site. That’s the lowest proportion allocated for pay since JPMorgan merged with Bank One Corp. in 2004.
You know, if shareholders had any real power to direct a company, the idea that 33% of revenue go to bonuses, much less 62%, would be a thing of the pass.
It is currently illegal for shareholders to vote on compensation plans. How about we change the law and make it legal.
Nibble on Iris Robinson’s Chocolate Balls
Seriously, I have to invoke South Park!
Remember a few days back, when I referenced Americablog’s story about how a right-wing Irish anti-gay bigot was herself sleeping with a 19 year old boy?
It’s legal, but real hypocrisy, and it just got worse:
Meanwhile, it emerged this weekend that Iris Robinson also had an affair with 19-year-old Kirk McCambley’s father, a butcher who died from cancer. She had another affair with a fellow DUP member in the 1980s which was witnessed by the security forces.
(emphasis mine)
It appears that the founder of the DUP, and fellow bigot, Rev. Ian Paisley is in full “going postal” mode over this.
Well, the story gets even weirder, because bloggers with way too much free time on their hands have uncovered her recipe for “chocolate balls, and this, in turn has uncovered the coverage of her recipe at the time in the Belfast Telegraph, which is just full of double entendre:
Iris Robinson’s chocolate balls to melt our hearts
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Food lovers across Northern Ireland are being given the chance to nibble on Iris Robinson’s chocolate balls, included in a new charity cookbook.
……………
(emphasis mine)
No, this is not The Onion.
Reality is very odd sometimes.
H/t AMERICAblog News
Schwarzenegger’s Latest Corrupt Disaster
Click for full size
Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown.
In addition to the fiscal meltdown going on in California, Governor “Ahnuld” has been talking up a water shortage that largely does not exist so that his billionaire friends can make a profit from a manufactured crisis:
We’ve been lied to for years now about the severity of California’s water shortage. The media and state officials have been ringing the alarm, warning that the state was in the grips of the quite possibly the “worst California drought in modern history,” when in fact the state nearly pulled in its average rainfall in 2009. The fearmongering is about to go into overdrive, as powerful interests start whipping up fears of drought to push through a $11 billion bond measure on the upcoming November elections, setting up the Golden State for a corporate water grab.
One of the big boosters promoting the drought scare is Gov. Schwarzenegger, who declared a state of emergency in early 2009, and promised to reduce water deliveries across the state by a whopping 80 percent.
Basically, 80% of water consumption in California is by agriculture, and this water is largely controlled by corporate farm cartels, and these get supplied water from the government at below cost prices, and frequently sell this resell water to the taxpayers at a significant markup.
Making farmers pay something approaching the real cost of supplying the water would solve this problem, because much of the shortage has been driven by corporate farms that have turned to water intensive crops, because they believe that they have the political pull to continue their back-door subsidy.
It’s Official: New York Fed Subpoenaed By House
Following revelations that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York instructed AIG not to do full disclosure of its swap deals with the big banks, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Edolphus Towns, has formally subpoenaed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for information relating to the AIG bailout. (Town’s statement is here.)
What is rather surprising is the level of arrogance involved in the bank’s response, where they say that, “We will work with the committee to provide relevant information as appropriate.”
No, that’s not how it works: When you get a subpoena, you don’t provide information that you deem “relevant” or appropriate, you turn over what they are demanding. That’s the definition of a subpoena, and so you turn over what is demanded.
The folks at Zero hedge have the full text of the subpoena:
All documents in the possession, custody, or control of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, relating to AIG credit default swap counterparty payments, the decision to compensate AIGs credit default swap counterparties at par, and public disclosure of the counterparty payments, including:
- Emails, phone logs, and meeting notes of the following people: Timothy Geithner, Stephen Friedman, Thomas Baxter, and Sarah Dahlgren;
- Term sheets, including drafts, relating to AIG’s payments to its CDS counterparties; and
- Emails, phone logs, and meeting notes relating to public disclosure of AIG’s payments to its CDS counterparties, including disclosure to the SEC.
(emphasis mine)
I think (hope) that Geithner is screwed. This specifically includes Geithner’s emails and phone logs as well.
If they disclose, he gets shown to be hip deep in a possibly illegal bailout, or completely incompetent, and if they stonewall, he has no credibility.
Unfortunately, I see Geithner’s trajectory mirroring that of Rumsfeld: He only gets fired only after a disastrous mid-term election.
A Good Start
He’ll have to pay a fee.
He won’t
The proposal recently mooted by the Obama Administration, to levy a fee on financial institutions in order to recover TARP funds (see also here) seems like a good start.
But between Mssrs. Summers and Geithner, along with the DINO back-bencher pukes on the House Banking Committee, you can be sure that it will be so full of loopholes that the only banks that might have to pay anything will be the mom-and-pop banks who’ve done all the right thing.
Note also that this makes no mention of recouping the facilities that the Federal Reserve has offered, which have gone largely to the very large banks, and banks that have former Federal Reserve board members working for them.
The problem is that people are either:
- Bought and paid for, or
- Deluded enough to think that the big bankers are essential to the functioning of the American economy.
What really needs to be done is:
- These folks, and the industry needs to be convinced to leave the country.
- Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles are used to take them out like other terrorists.
Now there’s a recruiting slogan for the USAF: Join up and blow up a banker.
Who’d Have Thunk It?
That the patron saint of dotcom excesses, Henry Blodget is calling for
Latest AIG Revelations: One More Reason Why Geithner’s Got to Go
Posted Jan 08, 2010 11:20am EST by Henry Blodget in Investing, Newsmakers, Recession, BankingThe latest revelations about the New York Fed’s actions in the AIG bailout make one thing clear: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner must go.
Geithner must go not just because of the emails showing that his New York Fed ordered AIG to keep details of the bailout secret, but because of many other decisions and policies he has championed in the past two years.
…………………
This is a time for Obama to fish or cut bait.
He is either a captive of the FIRE (Finance Insurance Real Estate) sector, or he represents the American people, and Geithner, and to an even larger extant Lawrence Summers are an artifact of the former.
H/t The Big Picture.
Funny, That
The Republicans for Choice political action committee (PAC) collects money to support pro-choice Republicans running for office.
The odd part of this is that Republicans for Choice PAC doesn’t actually give much of the money to said candidates:
Since the PAC’s formation in 1990, documents show that Republicans for Choice has raised and spent more than $5.5 million. But a Center for Public Integrity analysis of the PAC’s more recent filings — along with data from CQ MoneyLine, which tracks political giving — reveals that over the past decade less than five percent of the committee’s spending has gone to political candidates, other political committees, or independent expenditures. Since 2005, just about one-half of one percent of the PAC’s nearly $1 million in spending has gone to federal or state campaigns, according to a review of records. By comparison, Federal Election Commission data show the average federal PAC in the recent 2007-2008 cycle dedicated about 35 percent of spending to contributions aiding federal candidates. A comparison to other PACs on both sides of the abortion debate shows that similar groups spend a much greater portion of their funds on candidates and campaigns.
Where did RFC’s money go? Much of the group’s spending has been for consulting companies owned by the PAC’s chairwoman, Ann E. W. Stone. Those firms — along with payments to reimburse Stone’s expenses for travel, entertainment, and automobile repairs — comprise more than two-thirds of RFC PAC’s expenditures since 2006. And hundreds of dollars more went to pay for Stone’s parking tickets.
This should not be a surprise.
For folks who follow Talking Points Memo, this sort of self dealing is rather common among Republican fund raising groups.
Linda Chavez has earned a healthy living doing this, as has a PAC dedicated to electing minority Republicans.
Basically, if you are donating to pro-life or minority Republicans through a 3rd party firm, you should assume that less than ½% makes it to candidates.
Here’s to You, Mrs. Robinson
Hey, hey, hey…hey, hey, hey
No, really. In this case however, the Mrs. Robinson in question is Iris Robinson, wife of Peter Robinson, the head of the, “conservative Northern Ireland Unionist party.”
She has spent much of her public life campaigning against gays, implying that they will molest children and young adults.
Well, now, this 60 something paragon of morality has been caught having an affair, and, I almost forgot to mention this, she was screwing a 19-year old boy.
Lovely people, wot?
H/t Americablog and The Stranger.