Check out this piece in the new Vanity Fair (the Barack-Hollywood issue) on the bonuses these scumbags paid to themselves, to their upper level underlings, with your money. Mix it with the Obama Derangement Syndrome on Talk Radio, Fox and within the GOP--wherein now, the wingnut Congressmen and silly Senators are demanding their districts get the same stimulus cash they claimed was going to wreck the nation...and now you why normal folk are getting sick of Republican Party and turning into socialists! Enjoy the article. Or despair...
7 comments:
Blue moon or the Apocalypse must be controlling, as I am in complete agreement with you!
SoCal 82Tiger Says:
Professor - Funny that as the rest of the world is walking (or in some cases running) away from Socialism, both the left and right in our country have for the last 10years been in a full windsprint leading us towards the Big S....
To borrow an over used phrase I've heard too much these last few months - Please note.. "That on this day... at this time".. We will one day look back and see that as massive government stimulus spending failed to solve our Great Depression of the 1930's, it will also fail to solve our Great Ressession in 2009...
SoCal 82Tiger Says:
BTW - It's not the bonuses that are not the problem - It's the structure of bonuses that screw up people AND the system.
Smart people in finance have naively tied bonus programs to raw annual production that only rewards the last 12 months of work. Tie future bonuses in the financial services industry to something more then just annual results, and you would most likely see programs that reward decisions that promote successful long term performance.
For example have bonuses paid as annual residuals over time (3-5 years). That permits factoring operating losses against mere production and rewards people for succesful net growth not just pure production of crap!
Well talk more about this next month over a cigar and bourban if your up to it...
@SoCal--are you high on Xanax? (smile)
SoCal,
Only certain groups of people, I guess those that were not standing in bread lines and jobless
look back and see that as massive government stimulus spending failed to solve our Great Depression of the 1930's
However you perceive it, America survived into the 21th century. The constitution didn't predict a liberal or conservative government we would have now. I imagine you would think Thomas Jefferson a socialist, wanting public schools to ensure an educated participant in democracy.
SoCal Tiger, I don't think you even remotely addressed the real gist of the bonuses and what they represent. Aside from that, it's not even a question that government stimulus either here in 230 years or in other nations have worked. There'd be no modern nations without it, not to mention infrastructure.
Now back to the issue. This is from the LA Business Journal:
“In a surprising fit of corporate irresponsibility, it appears that, instead of disclosing their bonus plans in a transparent way as requested by my office, Merrill Lynch secretly moved up the planned date to allocate bonuses and then richly rewarded their failed executives,” [NY Atty General] Cuomo wrote.
In addition, Cuomo contends BofA was aware of the decision to award bonuses before Merrill’s fourth-quarter earnings were announced. BofA spokesman Scott Silvestri told The AP that Merrill was an independent company when its compensation committee approved the bonuses.
Cuomo’s allegations follow his decision to issue subpoenaes late last month seeking the testimony of former Merrill Chief Executive John Thain, as well as the testimony of BofA Chief Administrative Officer J. Steele Alphin. The subpoenaes were part of an ongoing inquiry into the bonuses paid by Merrill late last year.
The fact that Merrill appears to have moved up the timetable to pay bonuses before its merger with Bank of America is troubling to say the least and warrants further investigation, Cuomo’s office said at the time.
The N.C. Department of Justice also has requested documents from BofA regarding bonuses Merrill paid to its employees."
SoCal 82Tiger Says:
Re - Hathor & Carl – I believe that Professor Nat was commenting on the miss-use of bonuses as a sales promotion tool and the push for “give back” of those bonuses that might have been paid using bailout money or paying bonuses early knowing that bailout money was coming...
I am not against the government making such conditions as a part of their assistance program.
My point was that bonus programs are neither good nor bad! The bad and good is HOW bonus programs are structured and whether those who set them up know and plan how to promote growth while presenting checks against stumbling into a failing growth for growth's sake mentality...
The vast majority of bad bonus programs (and financial services is one of many industries that use them at ALL levels of operation) does not account for or factor in the promotion of successful sales that lead to long-term sustained growth.
Creating bread lines, soup kitchens, and an army of street sweepers did not solve the depression… Creating real jobs for people so that they can raise their families, pay their bills, save for the future, AND pay their taxes to finance the public sector is what solves a depression…. Once again in that respect our government stimulus spending alone from 1932 through 1941 failed to end the depression.
BTW - As to your speculation that my thinking that Jefferson was a socialist??? What the hell does that have to do with Professor Nat’s post subject??? In other posts I’ve said that TJ’s thoughts that a little revolution now and then against government is a good thing – Does that make him an anarchist? He held slaves and more than likely slept with at least one of them – Does that nullify his work as a “founding father”???
Oh and since we are trying to be obtuse I’ll give it a try - Had Clinton kept his zipper up might history be treating him as potentially a great president rather than have him lumped among the majority of Ex-Pres who did good as president but overall suffered with a “flawed” presidency???
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