Hello all. It just occurred to me, watching this very podcast of this very Rachel at this very moment, that the bonuses are blackmail to keep people who know all kinds of nasty secrets from spilling the beans on AIG’s top management. All the more reason to make sure they don’t get it…

Morning BT,
that’s such a great clip. She said about the same thing last night on Letterman.

I like the idea of taxing them at 90%. Fuck’em. Let congress show that 2 can play that game. And let’s see who votes against the idea.

That’s a lot of blackmail money. It’s really biz as usual up there in the financial sector which pays completely bloated salaries to perfectly average people to trade and play with enormous sums of money as if they are trading baseball cards.

“They” are trying to avoid really exposing the entire scam of the financial sector and couching their concern in phrases like – saving our financial system… or saving our banking system.

Why do we want to save THAT system which has proven to be full of unethical people who freely engage in corrupt practices and act completely irresponsibly with the only purpose being getting themselves filthy rich and their already filthy rich investors richer.

You see, the wealthy have no legitimate means to make money. This is the point of the entire financial sector – it’s been the only means for wealthy people to make money “with their money” and for others to make themselves very rich while doing that for the wealthy.

If the people in the financial sector had ethics and made reasonable salaries and acted responsibly then they would be steering money into REAL investments which might help Main Street. Not the ginormous returns of course, but a real investment with a “social purpose”… ir not simply making people with money richer.

It is this reason why the entire financial sector is corrupt, ethically bankrupt and needs to be trashed not fixed, or saved with bailouts. The bonuses are just symptoms of how they can corrupt slackers to do the bidding for the wealthy who only open up their statements and spend their ill gotten unearned wealth in luxuries which avoiding taxes which they consider an “honor”.

Only working people pay taxes and “need” the state to coddle them.

from emptywheel

“if you don’t give us our bonuses, we’ll trigger a default event that will cost AIG the US government tens of billions of dollars.” It’s just a polite way of saying, “Pay us the $100 million ransom or we start exploding the suicide bomber vests we’re wearing.”

make it 200%

Wow. Was beginning to think I’d never see this happen in my lifetime, but seems like I’m seeing it right now. People from all political stripes are rallying together to demand massive change to the American system. Single-payer may happen sooner than I ever thought. The political will might be here very soon.

One player in all this is has been consistently saying that massive and sustainable change comes from the bottom up, not from one person up top. That is Obama.

Couple that with this…

http://narcosphere.narconews.c…..door-again

…and we can see how all this is not happening by accident. We might be on the verge of fundamentally re-making how America functions. It’s not even 3D chess really, it’s just basic checkers.

Hmmm March 16th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
41
This was left on another thread, but works here to.
I wonder how the Exchange thingy is coming along?

In response to bobschacht @ 39 (show text)
‘Downright weird that nobody’s started talking a CDS exchange up yet, nor outlawing naked CDSes.’

I found this.

‘Businesses trying to establish the new market include CME Group Inc.; NYSE Euronext Inc.; IntercontinentalExchange Inc. or ICE; Eurex, the derivatives arm of Deutsche Börse AG; and Knight Capital Group Inc.’
http://www.portfolio.com/views…..top-at-cds

Good morning. Interesting program on cspan2. Replay of 3/11 panel of foreign policy journalists. Tuned in around start of Q&A and the most revealing aspect is that the Qs are so much better than the As. All the so-called journalists seem to do is repeat administration talking points and inside gossip. It’s really a fine example of how low the MSM has descended.

A lot of rope has been strung out, and BigMoney is hanging itself. Republican Charles Grassley will be happy to know that they may be committing suicide after all.

For anyone pissed right now, channeling into any of the big single-payer health care movements would be really wise right now. We can make it happen. Public sentiment is rapidly getting there.

From the great oranage

Freshman Congressman Peters Has Solution to AIG Bonus Scam

Congressman Peters’ bill would create a 60 percent surtax on bonuses over $10,000 to any company in which the U.S. government has a 79 percent or greater equity stake in the company. Currently, AIG is the only company that meets this threshold. The 60 percent surtax would be added to the normal income tax rate, meaning that bonuses received this year by AIG executives paying the top 35 percent tax rate would be taxed at 95 percent. The remaining 5 percent would likely be paid in state and local taxes, so taxpayers would fully recover any AIG bonuses paid in 2009.

The pols are bought & paid for by big corps. I’d still bet they win against the voter. Remember, money is speech. /s

“We are cooling. We are not warming. The warming you see out there, the supposed warming, and I use my fingers as quotation marks, is part of the cooling process.”

The economy is getting better. It is not getting worse. The loss of jobs you see out there, the supposed loss of jobs, and I use my fingers as quotation marks, is part of the getting better process.

As an aside, Maria Barto-whatever is rapidly becoming the Peggy Noonan of financial commentary.

I need the Queen of the Wall Street private jet set lecturing Obama about ‘tone’ like I need another hole in my head.

WTF (as in ‘where’) was all this desired ‘tone’ when she was breathlessly pumping up Citi stock at $35 a share?

But even with her on, “Morning Joe” is sooooo much more watchable without Joe.

That ABC piece seems like a lot of pushback against the idea of clawing back the bonuses. I find it hard to believe that AIG could not get these bonuses back without losing some expensive lawsuits.

“May it please the court . . . the conduct of these employees imperiled the continuing existence of AIG, threatened the existence of DeutscheBank, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, etc., and by extension has brought the world financial system to a grinding halt. If this is not just cause for withholding these bonuses, I don’t know what might qualify.”

IANAL, and I haven’t read the CT Wage Act, but somehow I would be amazed if employees who screwed up the company to the point of bankruptcy would have a leg to stand on in court over bonuses to their compensation.

Mornin’, pups.

NYT this am on the case for paying the bonuses.

Fairness has nothing to do with business these days. It’s all about how much dust you can collect by whatever means.

RE- NYT case:
This “must uphold contracts” BS is not cutting it. Too many are way too anxious to hit “delete” on Union contracts.

Laws for thee but not for me.

A good candidate for Schuster’s hypocrisy watch.

And even as Congress looks for ways to legislate, once again it may be too late.

“Anticipating restrictions on bonuses, officials at Citigroup Inc and Morgan Stanley are exploring ways to sidestep tough new federal caps on compensation, the Wall Street Journal said.

Executives at these banks and other financial institutions that received government aid are discussing increasing base salaries for some executives and other top-producing employees, the paper said, citing people familiar with the situation.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200…..reet_bonus

I like what Rep. Brad Sherman has to say (TPM) about Treasury failing to prevent these bonuses. But his final statement is quite noteworthy:

“Arguably, this thing with bonuses is a red herring they’re throwing at us [to distract from what AIG] did with the $170 billion” they’ve received from the U.S. government, Sherman said. “The bonuses are chump change compared with what’s going to the uninsured counterparties.”

If/when that hits the fan, good times for all.

Glad someone’s keeping his eye on the ball.

Christy’s up —>
A Fraud by Any Other Name is Still a Cheat

Off to swim in the great capitalist (bwahahahahahahahahahahaha) cesspool.

Pay off yer credit cards and use only coin of the realm in future.

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

Yes, the ball will attack us!

Did Ms. Jean mean this?