By GottaLaff
Shorter Sherrod Brown: You owe Main Street:
[Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)] Brown wants to impose a 50 percent tax on executive bonuses at firms that received aid under the $700 billion financial bailout package. Brown's legislation would use the revenue to support loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA).Shorter Laffy:
By GottaLaff
What we don’t know will hurt us, and quite possibly on a more devastating scale than any Qaeda attack. Americans must be told the full story of how Wall Street gamed and inflated the housing bubble, made out like bandits, and then left millions of households in ruin. Without that reckoning, there will be no public clamor for serious reform of a financial system that was as cunningly breached as airline security at the Amsterdam airport. And without reform, another massive attack on our economic security is guaranteed. Now that it can count on government bailouts, Wall Street has more incentive than ever to pump up its risks — secure that it can keep the bonanzas while we get stuck with the losses. [...]Please read the whole thing here.Why was our money used to make these high-flying gamblers whole while ordinary Americans received no such beneficence? Nothing less than complete transparency will connect the dots. Among the big-name witnesses that the Angelides commission has called for next week is Goldman’s Blankfein. Geithner, Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke should be next.
If they all skate away yet again by deflecting blame or mouthing pro forma mea culpas, it will be a sign that this inquiry, like so many other promises of reform since 9/15, is likely to leave Wall Street’s status quo largely intact. That’s the ticking-bomb scenario that truly imperils us all.
Dude, you are taking this way too far. He said that they shouldn't use taxpayer money for junkets to Vegas.
Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons says he rejected a White House offer of a handshake meeting with President Barack Obama when he arrives in Las Vegas.
The Republican governor released a statement Monday saying he's not interested in a "momentary" greeting with the Democratic president.
Gibbons says he wants an apology and a promise to undo damage he says Obama caused with a February comment that corporations shouldn't use bailout funds for trips to Las Vegas.
Gibbons calls that comment an insult to Las Vegas and a message to companies to cancel corporate meetings and conventions in the tourism-dependent city.
By GottaLaff
Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas [...] shared some observations about the office’s newest occupant with Washington Flyer magazine. “I think he has to be very daring, [but] I think he plays it very safe, very cautious, which is probably smart, but I’m not sure he’s going to really be as bold as I want him to be,” said Thomas, who is known for voicing critical, usually liberal opinions during press conferences. “I want to see a real transformation—a caring for the people, not just giving a $700 billion bailout to Wall Street while Detroit suffers.”
Last night I was cruising around during Rachel's commercials and came across Hannity talking with two FBN talking heads- one deeply up Sean's butt, the other one rather dumbfounded by Sean's ignorance. While SH kept trying to accuse Obama of teh socialism in capping salaries for bailout benefitees, the not-up-Sean's-butt FBN'r kept reiterating the fact that, "If they accept our tax payer dollars, we have a say in how they are spent". I was surprised how unprepared SH seemed to be to respond to dissent. Doesn't look like teh socialism meme is sticking.
A new Quinnipiac poll finds that American voters say by 81% to 16% margin that the government should limit executive compensation at companies receiving federal help, and say 47% to 44% that boards of directors and top managers at these companies should be forced to resign.
Support for income limits is strong among Democrats, Republicans and independent voters and in all income groups, but the call for forced resignations drops as income rises.
By GottaLaff
Mark Karlin, my pal who runs BuzzFlash, gives us a clear, concise tick-tock about how our economy hit the skids. Here are some excerpts (which aren't enough to do his piece justice). Please follow the link to read it in full:
I fully support the concept of the Obama "Main Street Job Creations Act," but only if it unleashes the American entrepeneurial spirit that the Republicans have stifled.
Because for all their talk of creating innovative small businesses, the GOP is actually the main roadblock to creating jobs in America that result in anything being actually produced.
If you start with Wal-Mart and its multi-billion dollar progeny, it's one big giant sucking hole of jobs to China. [...] And who benefits most from increased spending at Wal-Mart: the untold wretchedly low-paid workers at Wal-Mart Chinese manufacturing plants. [...] [A]t least in China, the consumers are buying goods manufactured in their own country, thus really creating jobs for Chinese workers. [...]
As for Wall Street, while the "Masters of the Universe" gambled hundreds of billions on exotic financial games -- such as derivatives and default swaps -- and then lost their bets, they left the American economy on the brink of a total meltdown. That is, until the Bush Administration came in and bailed them out [...]
And where do the loans come from to cover the massive gambling debt of Wall Street? Well, a large percentage of them come from -- you guessed it -- China. China will be covering a lot of the recovery package too. [...]
We haven't heard much from former President George W. Bush, but Bush stewarded in the final disastrous denouement of the Reagan "Revolution" of plundering the "vassals" of America to support the moneyed elite. By ensuring that the S.E.C. was neutered and that our national wealth became measured in worthless Wall Street "paper" instead of actual manufacturing production, "W." sealed our fate, helping China [...]
So there they are: the three W's that symbolize the economic decline of a nation that shipped its jobs overseas, became a high-finance gambling den and lost, and endured a president who made swindling the middle class "patriotic."
May I just say....
Go here for more.
By GottaLaff
The financial industry is fighting back against restrictions on executive compensation that Congress included in the massive fiscal stimulus bill last week.
In letters from trade associations and recent interviews, representatives for the financial industry are arguing that the restrictions need to be clarified and are preventing firms from filing accurate financial statements.
Because, you see, they're so transparent and honest and stuff, that accuracy has become their top, toppier, toppiest priority.
In a letter on Thursday to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Shapiro, the Financial Services Roundtable said the executive compensation rules "created serious implementation concerns." Their letter follows one from the American Bankers Association on Wednesday that said the uncertainty is already having a "profound effect" on the industry.
What about the profound effect they've had on the rest of us? That's an even higher priority, right? Right?
"We certainly understand the concerns expressed by the administration and the Congress about large bonuses that have been paid on Wall Street, but this new law is very complex in its reach and its effect on institutions of all sizes, including small community banks," wrote Edward Yingling, president of the ABA. "Our industry is badly in need of immediate clarification."
One specific issue raised by the Financial Services Roundtable is that the law does not make clear who is a "highly-compensated" employee. That ambiguity could drive away some employees who receive large bonuses, but are not necessarily in management. The roundtable also is questioning whether the firms that participate in a new program being set up by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury would also be subject to the law. That program to support consumer credit markets is a key part of Obama's plan for the rest of the $700 billion rescue money.
Okay, fair enough, they want Secretary Geithner to clarify. I have a question: Did America get all the clarification it needs from Wall Street yet?
I've got something going, so posting will be light until a little later.
Dear lord, we're so screwed. Go read here.
When I was listening to this last night I literally stopped and thought, "Wow, an intelligent discussion of the facts with no screeching or need for an "opposing" (i.e. wrong) views. Heaven."
UPDATE- Video replaced. MSNBC video can be a bear to get around.
By GottaLaff
Think you could borrow money from a bank without saying what you were going to do with it? Well, apparently when banks borrow from you they don't feel the same need to say how the money is spent.After receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending it. Some won't even talk about it.
"We're choosing not to disclose that," said Kevin Heine, spokesman for Bank of New York Mellon, which received about $3 billion.
Oh really? I'm choosing to disclose that Kevin is a defective-minded little wretch. And thanks for the transparency.
Now on to JPMorgan Chase:
Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in emergency bailout money, said that while some of the money was lent, some was not, and the bank has not given any accounting of exactly how the money is being used.
"We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to," Kelly said.
To be fair, that's only two measly banks. I can't imagine that all of them are so tight-lipped. That would be astoundingly, maddeningly unforgivable.
The Associated Press contacted 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest?
None of the banks provided specific answers.
I'msorrywhat?
Some banks said they simply didn't know where the money was going.
That's not exactly the answer we were looking for.
The answers highlight the secrecy surrounding the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which earmarked $700 billion - about the size of the Netherlands' economy - to help rescue the financial industry.
There has been no accounting of how banks spend that money. Lawmakers summoned bank executives to Capitol Hill last month and implored them to lend the money - not to hoard it or spend it on corporate bonuses, junkets or to buy other banks. But there is no process in place to make sure that's happening and there are no consequences for banks that don't comply.
Wow. That should bode well for our tanking economy. What could possibly go wrong from here?
Pressured by the Bush administration to approve the money quickly, Congress attached nearly no strings to the $700 billion bailout in October. And the Treasury Department, which doles out the money, never asked banks how it would be spent.
Good for you, Congress! Living right up to that big approval number, are ya?
Approval of
Congress ' job performance is down to single digits again for the first time since early September.The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters found that only nine percent (9%) give Congress good or excellent ratings, while 54% give the legislature poor marks. Just one-out-of-50 voters (2%) think Congress is doing an excellent job.
One more time, now, because I'm having a tough time believing what I'm hearing:
[N]o bank provided even the most basic accounting for the federal money.
Most banks wouldn't say why they were keeping the details secret. [...]
One didn't even want to say they wouldn't say.
I am now a believer.
[Elizabeth Warren, the top congressional watchdog overseeing the financial bailout], said her oversight panel will try to force the banks to say where they've spent the money.Your government dollars at work. Oh, and thanks for that whole "who needs oversight" policy, Republicans. It's really paid off."If the appropriate restrictions were put on the money to begin with, if the appropriate transparency was in place, then we wouldn't be in a position where you're trying to call every recipient and get the basic information that should already be in public documents," she said.
Garrett, the New Jersey congressman, said the nation might never get a clear answer on where hundreds of billions of dollars went.
Who could have ever guessed? Via Taegan-
The Washington Post reports that "at the last minute, the Bush administration insisted on a one-sentence change" to a provision in the bank bailout bill which has now "effectively repealed the only enforcement mechanism in the law dealing with lavish pay for top executives."
By GottaLaff
The Senate has confirmed a New York prosecutor as watchdog of the $700 billion rescue program for the nation's financial sector.Neil M. Barofsky will become a special inspector general within the Treasury Department to audit and investigate spending by the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program. President George W. Bush nominated Barofsky to the position last month.
His confirmation had been held up anonymously by one senator. The opposition was lifted last week.
I wonder who Anon was.
By GottaLaff
The Washington Post has a new interactive version of Monopoly that they call "Econopoly". It's a game that reflects the current 2008 financial malaise. I pieced together a bunch of screen shots (every time you roll the dice, it takes you around the board in sections, so I had to accumulate segments):
Comparisons between today’s financial crisis and the 1930s are looking less strained by the day. So what better to lighten the tension than to revive everybody’s favourite Depression-era board game, Monopoly?
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