Sunday February 1, 2009, 9:21 am
It’s Theirs and They’re Not Apologizing
By ALAN FEUER and KAREN ZRAICK

Getting between a broker and his bonus is like getting between a schnauzer and his lunch bowl. He may not bite you, but you are going to smell his breath.

“People come here because they want to work hard and get paid a lot for working hard,” one investment banker said Friday as he wended his way, lunch bag in hand, through the World Financial Center. “I think there’s a disconnect between Wall Street and Main Street.”

That certainly was the case this week when Main Street learned that, despite the craters of a down economy, Wall Street bonuses were more than $18 billion last year — roughly what they were in the fatty, solvent days of 2004. The media hollered, the president scolded, and ordinary people checked their wallets. But downtown, in the caverns of finance, the moneymakers shrugged and took it on the chin.

It is a complicated thing, they said, to apportion compensation in a bear market. First of all, profits do not stop; they often ebb. Second of all, losses move unequally, so the law of the jungle should still apply: you eat what you can kill.

“My bonus is ‘shameful’ — but I worked hard to get it,” said John Konstantinidis, a wholesale insurance broker, lunching Friday at Harry’s at Hanover Square.

“I’m a HENRY,” Mr. Konstantinidis added. “High Earner but Not Rich Yet.”

Nonetheless, it was rather remarkable on Friday how many white shirts denied getting a bonus altogether when they were asked. Indeed, if the data obtained by reporters in the district was any measure, there is no telling where that $18 billion really went.

What can be told, however, is that President Obama is substantially less popular on Wall Street this week than he was last week. Words like “outrageous,” “shameful” and “the height of irresponsibility” — especially when applied to a man’s paycheck — tend not to make you many friends.

“I think President Obama painted everyone with a broad stroke,” said Brian McCaffrey, 55, a Wall Street lawyer who was on his way to see a client. “The way we pay our taxes is bonuses. The only way that we’ll get any of our bailout money back is from taxes on bonuses. I think bonuses should be looked at on a case by case basis, or you turn into a socialist.”

That, indeed, was a recurring equation: Broad strokes + b

Sunday February 1, 2009, 9:22 am
Wall Street: "Hands off our entitlements!":

Meanwhile, around the corner, Larry Meyers and Gerard Novello, who work for an Italian securities firm, ducked into a Mexican cantina for a drink. It was Mr. Meyers’s 43rd birthday, and he ordered the tequila.

“On Main Street, ‘bonus’ sounds like a gift,” he said. “But it’s part of the compensation structure of Wall Street. Say I’m a banker and I created $30 million. I should get a part of that.”

Er, no. Clue stick, Larry:

You didn't "create" a flu*king thing. People who have real jobs, people who make stuff -- whether it's cars, or steel, or computer code, or pizzas, or or even blogs -- they are the ones who create. You just pushed some pieces of paper around and took a cut. You're just a parasite, and about as creative as a mosquito.*

NOTE * To be fair, mosquitos do create disease by injecting micro-organisms into the bloodstream of their hosts.

NOTE The title is, of course, a take-off on a long running series by Lord Eschaton.

Sunday February 1, 2009, 11:05 am

Bailout Banks Gave The Finger To The AMerican Taxpayers


Banks collecting billions of dollars in federal bailout money sought
government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers to the U.S. for high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.


-----

Yes, the corporate class has no discernible loyalties to our nation, other than knowing where to go for a handout.

Workers from Ireland and India will be targetted, now.

Monday February 2, 2009, 3:15 am

It came out at the end of January that Wall Street bankers gave themselves $20 Billion worth of bonuses, the same amount that they had given themselves in 2004 when everything was going fine, whereas by the end of 2008, they had already taken advantage of the government bailout that had been voted with virtually a knife at throat of every Senator & Representative to 'save the economy.' Incredible ! Disgusting !

This came out the same week that 65,000 jobs were reported cut, for just that one week !

Obama put it so well --these bonuses came at a time when most of these financial institutions were teetering on the brink of collapse and asking for the American taxpayer to sustain them.

He's right, it is "shameful," "outrageous," and "the height of irresponsibility" !

But no matter how well he puts it, what can he actually DO about it?

Very little, I've just read in the NYTimes (Few Ways to Recover Bonuses to Bankers). The money cannot be taken back, unless there has been fraud or wrongdoing, like accounting errors, or the companies are undercapitalized...and this, only after lengthy legal battles, which would be at further cost to taxpayers.

How can the same economy that is pushing tens of thousands into poverty & homelessness, and has cut the retirement funds of others by 40-50%, continue to reap huge rewards & gigantic bonuses for the very people who cried for rescue ??

We who opposed the rescue package, with slogans like "Privatize the Profits, Socialize the Losses," can just throw up in disgust now. What's left?

Monday February 2, 2009, 8:34 am
These bonuses are part of the reason we got into this situation. By typing compensation to profit it bred a generation of bankers/investors that would do anything to make that profit to get their bonuses higher. Perhaps the way to change it is to force those bailed out to receive flat salaries.

Monday February 2, 2009, 8:38 am
Sorry for typo, that tying. Also B of A is one of the banks trying to break all unions, pull credit from struggling manufacturers (remember the one where the employees conducted a sit-in to get their paychecks?) and offshore all labor.

Monday February 2, 2009, 12:42 pm
These are the money-changers and they should be thrown out of the temple - er, ah, make that country. They could all go live where their offshore accounts are and duke it out amongst themselves. May the greediest man win and get to spend his days doing nothing but counting his money and all the people he's hurt along the way.

Monday February 2, 2009, 12:44 pm
I just saw that Merrill Lynch logo and got angry all over again - why in holy bejeebers anyone wants to save a corporation like Merrill Lynch is beyond me.

Monday February 2, 2009, 6:16 pm
Oh, and Christy, B of A is the nastiest kind of credit card to have; one of my neighbors, a senior citizen who fell down and had to be hospitalized missed one or two payments on hre BofA credit card and they hounded this woman day and night, wouldn't give her a break.

Monday February 2, 2009, 6:21 pm
Alba wrote: "

How can the same economy that is pushing tens of thousands into poverty & homelessness, and has cut the retirement funds of others by 40-50%, continue to reap huge rewards & gigantic bonuses for the very people who cried for rescue ??

"We who opposed the rescue package, with slogans like "Privatize the Profits, Socialize the Losses," can just throw up in disgust now. What's left?"

Alba, it can happen because THE ELITE do whatever the hell they want, they would never ask permission and they hardly ever apologize when they're wrong.

Saturday February 7, 2009, 6:19 am
The "Gilded Age" all over again, just before the Depression.

What goes up, must come down. Our losses (businesses, land, homes, assets) will be their gain as they swoop down when the interest rates hit rock bottom.

Capitalism will never work. We need to bury this brain fart once and for all.

Sunday February 8, 2009, 4:33 pm
Light up the phone lines; let Congre$$ know how you feel about bank bailout$ and cuts to jobs, education and health care:

Operation Zero Credibility : Calling the Leadership

Majority Leader Harry Reid
(202) 224-3542

Majority Whip Dick Durbin
(202) 224-2152

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
(202) 225-0100

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
(202) 225-4131

House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn
(202) 226-3210

The message:

"The Republicans have zero credibility on the economy."

Paraphrase President Obama:


"Please reject the Republican theories that got us into this mess in the first place."

And for Senator Reid:


"Make the Republicans stand and filibuster if they want to filibuster. No cloture votes!"

From there, considering the unprecedented dollar amount of the recovery bill, it might be impossible to herd every cat. But perhaps, in the process, we'll at least marginalize the Republicans just a little more. And that will surely mean a larger, more robust recovery bill.

So as the saying goes: We are the ones we've been waiting for, and all that.

Don't write or send e-mails. Written screeds can be conveniently lost, deleted or shredded. Telephones, on the other hand, make loud beeping and ringing noises and you'll know right away that there's a real life human being on the other end of the line who has to listen to what you have to say.


Phone numbers for your senators here. Phone numbers for your congressmember here.


The message:

"The Republicans have zero credibility on the economy."

Paraphrase President Obama:

"Please reject the Republican theories that got us into this mess in the first place."

Feel free to toss in the following:

"Make the Republicans stand and filibuster if they want to filibuster. No cloture votes!

Don't get into specific details of the bill. Our message needs to be consistent and unified: Zero Cred. The Republicans have zero credibility. We reject their ideas and we reject their theories.

Let's do this.

Tuesday February 10, 2009, 11:49 am
Protestors Picket Bank CEO's Homes, Offices


A new kind of street warfare is breaking out against Wall Street titans - and it's happening on their lawns and outside their lobbies too. A corps of agitators - financed, ironically, with federal-stimulus millions - is making the rounds of suburban mans

Tuesday February 10, 2009, 5:57 pm
Goldman CEO Blankfein Acknowledges "Broad Public Anger" At Wall Street

"Anger" is putting it mildly. Outrage is more like it. Not only should Washington insist on pay caps for any firm taking taxpayer funds, but most of these crooks should be canned without any serverence. They held themselves out as the titans of finance and they skated along with unchecked greed and complete incompetence that resulted in lives in rubble across the globe.

Wednesday February 11, 2009, 8:32 pm
* When is a "bonus" not a "bonus"? When it's given out by Morgan Stanley.

Friday February 13, 2009, 8:56 pm
Stimulus Package Contains Strict New Restrictions On Executive Pay
Goes Beyond What Obama Admin Imposed Last Week

Saturday February 14, 2009, 3:06 pm
Wow!! The new restrictions are stiff!! Good for Congress. It's about time they did something that makes sense. I guess they really ARE listening to us.

Friday February 20, 2009, 11:18 am
Bu$h wanted to entrust guys like Wall Street's Madoff with people's Social Security money. Imagine if they did privatize part of Social Security. Think of what Madoff and them would have done to people's nest eggs:

"We must strengthen Social Security by allowing younger workers to save some of their taxes in [the stock market] -- a nest egg you can call your own, and government can never take away....In all these proposals, we seek to provide... more freedom and more control over your own life."--George W. Bush, pushing his Social Security privatization program.

Yes, the brilliance of George W Bu$h and the RepubliCON$: don't entrust governmentt with your money... entrust Wall Street/Madoff with your money. When they scr.ew you over, you'll be left with nothing, and will be stuck looking to the government for help -- which will cost us all.

Friday February 20, 2009, 12:39 pm
"Bu$h wanted to entrust guys like Wall Street's Madoff with people's Social Security money. Imagine if they did privatize part of Social Security. Think of what Madoff and them would have done to people's nest eggs:"

Bush is scarier than I realize. And to think, McCain wanted to do the same. When I think about it, we're on a wing and a prayer. No one has been driving the car, the headlights were bashed in, turn signals didn't work and the brakes were gone years ago. If someone were killed an an accident, there were no police to write up the report and send anyone to the hospital or jail.

Now we hear that Sean Hannity of Fox News was advertising for folks to buy from this Stanford guy who was recently busted like Madoff for an $8 Billion ponzi scheme.

Who needs enemies when you have the president (ex) and media robbing you blind?

Saturday February 21, 2009, 12:39 am
Aw, Marion! You have forgotten that Bu$h was on a "mi$$ion from God" ... and God would even $peak to Bu$h ... int he oval office, when he was lying face down on the floor ... I suspect KKKarl Rove had those hidden speakers disconnected after the WMD fiasco ...

Saturday February 21, 2009, 1:08 am
Thanks, guys, for these comments -- you've connected some dots for me; I hadn't made the connection between unrestrained financial practices, the massive frauds and the calls to privatize Social Security! What a catastrophe THAT would have been! --

"Bu$h wanted to entrust guys like Wall Street's Madoff with people's Social Security money. Imagine if they did privatize part of Social Security. Think of what Madoff and them would have done to people's nest eggs"

"Now we hear that Sean Hannity of Fox News was advertising for folks to buy from this Stanford guy who was recently busted like Madoff for an $8 Billion ponzi scheme."


But our handsome, intelligent President is not standing up for grassroots people and seems to be totally aligned with the 'elite' that Blue speaks of.

The 'coup de grace' of my hopes for him is the Monsanto bills being rushed through Congress at the moment, tagged on to another bail-out, it seems:

ACTION ALERT: Monsanto Bills Being Rushed Through Congress, Set to Destroy Organic Farming -- OPPOSE 'NAIS' NOW! We have less than two weeks to stop the take over of farms & ranches. We need to rally people immediately. Tell Congress

We are talking about the take over of the US food supply by industrial forces and the contamination and, thus, death of organic farming through stealth.
Monsanto will be entering into the body of organic farming like a disease and morphing organic farms into industrial facilities, the farmer being forced to "treat" the land with chemicals and the animals with drugs, trapped into paying for what is unwanted, unsafe, unneeded, unconstitutional.

Everything green, healthy, anti-global warming, local, decent, environmental, community building, independent, free thing that organic farming is, we need. But the corruption of our government and politicians by Monsanto and especially the Clinton influence on behalf of Monsanto, is bringing us horror !

Saturday February 21, 2009, 9:50 pm
Alba, have a little more faith in our new President and let us all have a little more patience, too:

President OBAMA'S FIRST BUDGET
Seeks To Cut Deficit In Half By End Of Term... Big Reductions For Iraq, Afghanistan Wars... Tax Hikes For The Wealthy

Sunday February 22, 2009, 4:06 am
William Greider knows the plan is Looting Social Security: "The Social Security fight could become a defining test for "new politics" in the Obama era.

Will Americans at large step up and make themselves heard, not to attack Obama but to protect his presidency from the political forces aligned with Wall Street interests?

This fight can be won if people everywhere raise a mighty din--hands off our Social Security money!--and do it now, before the deal gains momentum.

Popular outrage can overwhelm the insiders and put members of Congress on notice: a vote to gut Social Security will kill your career. By organizing and agitating, people blocked Bush's attempt to privatize Social Security. Imagine if he had succeeded--their retirement money would have disappeared in the collapsing stock market."

Sunday February 22, 2009, 4:07 am
Social Security doesn't need reforming. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it can pay all scheduled benefits for the next 40 years with no changes whatsoever.

Sunday February 22, 2009, 4:07 am
Digby got wind of a big fat campaign to lie about Social Security, even calling it "unfunded". It's not unfunded, dammit - you already paid for it.

Sunday February 22, 2009, 5:08 am
"President OBAMA'S FIRST BUDGET Seeks To Cut Deficit In Half By End Of Term... Big Reductions For Iraq, Afghanistan Wars... Tax Hikes For The Wealthy "

Blue ~ Excellent!!! There is a 3rd way Obama plans to do this. I heard it last night, but can't recall it now. Anyway, we need to stay focused on what OBAMA says, not what the obstructionists are saying. Much of what he says has been clouded over in the news from the smoke and mirrors. We need to get on his mailing list and check out his web sites frequently. Faux News has people in a panic thinking Obama's going to run to Africa or somewhere with $800 billion and turn us all into slaves. Truth is, Bush already turned us into slaves and paupers. We can't get any lower. Obama's plan is are only hope right now, and you're right: we need to stay on top of this and tell him what we think.

The only way SSI could be unfunded is if someone has already manipulated that money. I agree, we must make a big ruckus and demand they leave SSI alone. However, 40 years is not enough, unless another system is put in place to secure the retirements of future workers. We either continue with SSI, or get another system started working parallel to SSI. But SSI must be left alone for those who have already paid into it.

Personally, I am depending on my SSI kicking in in a few years. It will be 1/3 of my income. I am already making adjustments by growing my own food, making the home energy efficient and off the grid, and reducing, reducing, reducing everywhere I can. I continue to build up my health so I don't or never have to rely on medication (drugs) in my senior years. I don't want to be dependent on the government, but expect them to come through when I can't. That's why we pay taxes.

Sunday February 22, 2009, 5:24 am
Marion, you aren't confusing SSI with SSA, are you? SSI=supllemental security income ...

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a Federal income supplement program funded by general tax revenues (not Social Security taxes):

http://www.ssa.gov/ssi/text-eligibility-ussi.htm

SSI is not Social Security benefits for retirement.

I just checked your profile, Marion ... you're so lucky, you're a Grandmother, and what beautiful grandchildren you have!

Sunday February 22, 2009, 5:36 am
Blue ~ You're right. I'm referring to SSA. Thanks for correcting me. I can see myself now arguing with SSI and them looking at me like I'm a crazy old hoot, LOL!

Thanks for the compliment on the grandkids. They are so much fun. Does this mean you don't have grandchildren? If not, you must find some...quick! Babies and small children are the greatest joy in the golden years.

Something to do, something to love, and something to hope for...

Sunday February 22, 2009, 6:05 am
Marion, I'm looking forward to being a grandmother some day; my grownup child will be married in the spring. I'm not pushing, just hoping for a grandchild or 2 or 3 ... :-)

We have to be on our guard against those sneaky crook$ and liar$ who want to get their hands on the Social Seucrity Funds ... just remembe rhow they wanted to convince the young people to put their SSA payroll deductions into the stock market ... and today they would have had NOTHING at all left; when my daughter checked her 401k last month it lost 45% of its value.


Looting Social Security

Governing elites in Wash DC and Wall Street have devised a fiendishly clever "grand bargain" they want President Obama to embrace in the name of "fiscal responsibility." They are also targeting Medicare and Medicaid.
The pitch sounds preposterous to...

Sunday February 22, 2009, 6:17 am
Blue ~ You're in for a real treat with grandchildren! You are able to see yourself in their eyes and they round out our lives. All we have to do is teach and love them. What a bargain!

I remember very well how those crooks and liars were salivating over SS funds. The very thing we feared came about...with a vengeance. McCain was a big backer of that plan. I'm sorry your daughter lost so much of her 401k. Truly sad what has happened to American's retirement and savings plans. It's criminal!!!!

If Obama falls for this "grand bargain" I will be very surprised. He has enough advisers who know better.

Sunday February 22, 2009, 9:29 am
Marion, I had a very special relationship with my grandmothers and my mother had a very special relationship with my daughter; mom used to say that she saw everything as if it was "new" again ... through her grandchild's eyes.

I don't think that President Obama will fall for this grand mbargain; do you remember that old story about "please don't throw me in the briar patch, please don't throw me in the briar patch..."?

Finally, we have a President with a brain ... and that comforts me greatly.

Monday February 23, 2009, 5:49 pm
Shrill works

At least on the relatively trivial task of taking destroying Social Security off the table at a White House conference sponsored by Democrats. Nevertheless, shrill worked. More like this, please. Much, much, much more. Read more…

Monday February 23, 2009, 5:58 pm

Helen Thomas to Gibbs: Why Mess With Social Security When Its Solvent?


Helen calls out the damn lie about Social Security and mentions how hard people are already struggling while Gibbs just fu mbles around. To me,
it's obvious that the White House knows they're looting Social Security, right when we're facing a disastrous..

Monday February 23, 2009, 5:59 pm

Helen Thomas to Gibbs: Why Mess With Social Security When Its Solvent?


Helen calls out the damn lie about Social Security and mentions how hard people are already struggling while Gibbs just fu mbles around. To me,
it's obvious that the White House knows they're looting Social Security, right when we're facing a disastrous..

Tuesday February 24, 2009, 5:58 pm
Obama Flips: Now Calls For Universal Healthcare Coverage Mandate

Monday March 2, 2009, 7:46 pm
BofA's Ken Lewis: TARP Funds "A Mistake"CNBC: Lewis Earned $8.8 Million In '08