you've got to be effing kidding me...

[JulieJazz]

...http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/busin ... IG.html?em

I need to become a crooked fucker and get a good contract!

[eumaas]

Fuck the banksters.

[Still216]

...http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/busin ... IG.html?em

I need to become a crooked fucker and get a good contract!

Yeah, that entire company is pretty much a poster child of how fucked everything is. I can't comprehend that they wouldn't work some sort of emergency clause into their executive contracts that would allow the company the right to restrict bonuses given specific circumstances (i.e. the entire company becoming a government-owned entity). And even if they didn't - wouldn't the government demand redrawn contracts so public funding wouldn't be funneled into junkets and executive bonuses? Also, companies usually leave themselves the right to not pay bonuses to executives (some even maintain employment-at-will policies at their executive levels). Or at least, they directly tie bonuses to their financial results, or specific employees' personal work performance. The hell happened with AIG?

Meanwhile one of the major banks in Cleveland went under (got bought out by an out of town bank). Apparently they're the only bank in America (or abroad) that couldn't score bailout money.

[Dr. Medulla]

...http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/busin ... IG.html?em

I need to become a crooked fucker and get a good contract!

Yeah, that entire company is pretty much a poster child of how fucked everything is. I can't comprehend that they wouldn't work some sort of emergency clause into their executive contracts that would allow the company the right to restrict bonuses given specific circumstances (i.e. the entire company becoming a government-owned entity). And even if they didn't - wouldn't the government demand redrawn contracts so public funding wouldn't be funneled into junkets and executive bonuses? Also, companies usually leave themselves the right to not pay bonuses to executives (some even maintain employment-at-will policies at their executive levels). Or at least, they directly tie bonuses to their financial results, or specific employees' personal work performance. The hell happened with AIG?

Meanwhile one of the major banks in Cleveland went under (got bought out by an out of town bank). Apparently they're the only bank in America (or abroad) that couldn't score bailout money.

I recently reread Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker, and so nothing about this is surprising. It really is a fantasy world at these investment banks, where billions of dollars move around willy-nilly and treated as a game without real consequences, and all that matters is that the bank gets its cut on each deal and, more importantly, the measure of a man is the size of his bonus. That's ingrained in the culture. The bonus thing is how employees are rank and regard each other. I'm not defending the practice whatsoever, but suspending bonuses would be massive higgledy-piggledy (that's a lower brow version of willy-nilly) on Wall Street. That as much as anything will be fought tooth and nail.

[eumaas]

"Too big to fail" is evil bullshit. Oh, and fuck Krugman for good measure. He's a goddamn fascist. A normal business starts failing, the owner pumps cash into it until the whole thing collapses. Our new fascist too big to fail businesses start going down, and the government takes from the poor to keep the bullshit afloat, and the executive throw a party. They don't have to succeed at business, they just have to fail cyclically.

[JulieJazz]

This completely sickens me. I almost wish there was no bailout...despite the drastic consequences...maybe the disaster would make people stand up and take action.

Where have all the angry mobs gone, anyway...

[eumaas]

http://aaeblog.com/2009/03/18/talk-abou ... the-point/

[eumaas]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7950452.stm

[eumaas]

http://aaeblog.com/2009/03/18/talk-abou ... the-point/

Counterpoint:
http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2009 ... ts-on-aig/

[Dr. Medulla]

It actually does get better/more appalling: the banks are also using the bail-out money to donate (duh, buy) to Congressional campaigns. So, tax dollars are being given to uber-rich asshole fuck ups who then use it to buy the people giving them the money. Utterly shameless and contemptuous of the average meathead trying to keep his head above water. Fuck it, if you Americans want to start lynching members of Congress and anyone even remotely connected with Wall Street, I certainly wouldn't condemn you. None of these bastards have a conscience—they're all various shades of sociopathic.

[Flex]

It actually does get better/more appalling: the banks are also using the bail-out money to donate (duh, buy) to Congressional campaigns. So, tax dollars are being given to uber-rich asshole fuck ups who then use it to buy the people giving them the money. Utterly shameless and contemptuous of the average meathead trying to keep his head above water. Fuck it, if you Americans want to start lynching members of Congress and anyone even remotely connected with Wall Street, I certainly wouldn't condemn you. None of these bastards have a conscience—they're all various shades of sociopathic.

I'd be literally angry with rage, but who the fuck was kidding themselves into thinking this wouldn't happen?

[BostonBeaneater]

I keep checking the mail. No bonus.

[Dr. Medulla]

It actually does get better/more appalling: the banks are also using the bail-out money to donate (duh, buy) to Congressional campaigns. So, tax dollars are being given to uber-rich asshole fuck ups who then use it to buy the people giving them the money. Utterly shameless and contemptuous of the average meathead trying to keep his head above water. Fuck it, if you Americans want to start lynching members of Congress and anyone even remotely connected with Wall Street, I certainly wouldn't condemn you. None of these bastards have a conscience—they're all various shades of sociopathic.

I'd be literally angry with rage, but who the fuck was kidding themselves into thinking this wouldn't happen?

No, I'm cynical/realistic enough not to be that surprised, but it's the complete "business as usual" attitude that's so galling. It's like a husband who cheats on his wife, gets caught, and asks her for a second chance. She says sure, but demands that he change his ways. But, not even showing contrition, he immediately goes out and picks up a woman in a bar. Yeah, the guy may be a serial cheater and was going to do it in the future, but he's not even faking a token effort. Fuck him—she should cut off his nuts first opportunity.

[Silent Majority]

It actually does get better/more appalling: the banks are also using the bail-out money to donate (duh, buy) to Congressional campaigns. So, tax dollars are being given to uber-rich asshole fuck ups who then use it to buy the people giving them the money. Utterly shameless and contemptuous of the average meathead trying to keep his head above water. Fuck it, if you Americans want to start lynching members of Congress and anyone even remotely connected with Wall Street, I certainly wouldn't condemn you. None of these bastards have a conscience—they're all various shades of sociopathic.

I'd be literally angry with rage, but who the fuck was kidding themselves into thinking this wouldn't happen?

No, I'm cynical/realistic enough not to be that surprised, but it's the complete "business as usual" attitude that's so galling. It's like a husband who cheats on his wife, gets caught, and asks her for a second chance. She says sure, but demands that he change his ways. But, not even showing contrition, he immediately goes out and picks up a woman in a bar. Yeah, the guy may be a serial cheater and was going to do it in the future, but he's not even faking a token effort. Fuck him—she should cut off his nuts first opportunity.

So, we assassinate...?