Comments on: Golden Parachutes Are Unpatriotic

By: mui1

mui1 — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:02:08 +0000

They probably don’t want to give up their Town Cars waiting at curbside or their houses in the Hamptons or their hookers and blow, either, but fellahs, the times are a-changin’. There are even more more poison pills available. The pissed-off American public, tired of bailing your sorry asses out at the end of every GOP administration, is your new pharmacist.

Right ON!!!

By: whomever1

whomever1 — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:58:43 +0000

Bernie Sanders had the only reasonable comment I’ve read–(paraphrasing)–any business too big to fail without ruining the economy is too big. He specifically mentioned Bank of America as one company that should be broken up. Though I bet the Federal anti-trust division has been on short rations for a while.

By: DrDick

DrDick — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:49:56 +0000

If relinquishing golden parachutes and other extraordinary compensation is a
“poison pill” for the bailout, then there really is not an immediate crisis and we have plenty of time to work out a reasonable solution which includes sacking everyone involved in creating this problem and making them pay for their stupidity (no parachutes or stock options and refunding past bonuss and extra compensation), instituting regulatory reform to insure this does not happen again, and insuring that the American people and taxpayers are the primary beneficiaries.

By: Teddy Partridge

Teddy Partridge — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:44:32 +0000

Just because his trust is disgorging profits to charity doesn’t mean he lacks any financial interest in it: charity donations are deductible from other income for tax purposes. He will also reclaim that trust as his own in January 2009, and likely expects it to be in good shape due to his actions, and those of his minions throughout the federal government.

Charities are a scam of the wealthy, bright shiny objects they can point to, in their white tie and tails and say, “See, all the good I am doing!” Usually, and formerly, the supported things were accomplished via taxation in a normal liberal welfare state not corrupted by neocon Randians.

By: markfromireland

markfromireland — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:39:52 +0000

In the immortal words of St. Ronny The GaGa You ain’t seen nothin’ yet! I don’t know if they’ve been covered yet in these pages but I suggest that people do a bit of googling on the Alt A. loans crisis and then pester someone like Ian to write about it. They are as the moderately conservative U.K Independent puts it Potentially more toxic than sub-prime

Lehman Brothers admitted that it had cut the value of its Alt-As by 71 per cent – a deeper writedown than it made on its sub-prime securities. The cut left Lehman less exposed to Alt-As than HBOS.

The securities are known as “liar loans” in America because borrowers give no proof of income. Many applicants exaggerated their earnings to obtain larger loans to buy bigger homes, but were unable to pay the interest – especially when the low initial “teaser” rates charged in the initial years jumped later to market levels.

Default rates have quadrupled in the past year and are five times greater than the arrears on prime loans. Although sub-prime defaults are worse, there are twice as many Alt-A loans outstanding, making them potentially more dangerous.

Emphasis added.

mfi

By: Frank33

Frank33 — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:38:03 +0000

Heck, the auto workers are fairly smart folks. They could be retrained to build Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars. They are productive. I would be happy to help them keep their jobs.

But, what good is the Financial Industry? The investment bankers only serve the Investor Class. These “Masters of the World” actually are slow-witted and drag their knuckles when they walk. Perhaps they could be retrained to work in the Circus as Clowns.

By: sadlyyes

sadlyyes — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:37:08 +0000

2 words on his site

NO COMMENTS …speaks volumes about who he is

By: Jo Fish

Jo Fish — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:35:18 +0000

Sullivan, aka the Duchess of DuPont needs to be muzzled. How in the world he’s managed to get into the good graces of progressives everywhere by standing up to the 1600 Crew is beyond me. He was one of the first and loudest advocating our “unAmerican-ness” for not supporting the invasion of Iraq, for not being in love with Glorious Beloved Leader. Now that he has “seen the light” we’re supposed to forget his calls for us to be locked up as “fifth columnists”?

I think not.

And Naomi Klein was fantastic. As always.

By: sadlyyes

sadlyyes — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:33:22 +0000

had enuf?

By: spiny

spiny — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:33:06 +0000

Unfortunately, its going to be the usual cast of Democratic capitulators that are going to get the last word on this: Polisi, Hoyer & Reid. Reprising his Alito role, Shumer already appears to be in the tank. Obama came out with a nice set of principles that a bailout should have, which this one lacks completely. Lets see who the clowns follow: Uncle Hank (i.e. Bush) or Obama. It could be very much a leading indicator of what to expect if Obama gets elected president.