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So, does anybody else out there find it very strange that G.E. gets fined $50MM over accounting charges, but Bank of America gets fined $33MM for misleading shareholders surrounding $3.6Bn in bonus checks? I suppose it helps to be a ward of the state…connections to governmental top brass doesn’t hurt either. Maybe I’m just talking out my ass…but to me, something smells rotten in this nation…I suppose there’s no shortage of that these days, especially amongst the financial behemoths. Which is why even talk of the end of Kenneth Lewis’ tenure brings me immense joy. x}

Update: Judge Halts Settlement With Bank - I really like Judge Jed Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan =)

AIG has some frickin’ gad damn chutzpah. You mean to tell me after all the billion$ they needed to buttress this “cancer of finance” they want to reward their legions of disease? They may be huge, so huge that they need to be shut down. But they’re never going to pay back the money in full that the government stupidly threw at them. If those in charge decide to grant AIG the permission to blow frickin’ million$ on their minions you can be sure an ugly contempt will further brew in the public masses. And the nation will likely not forget this vile debauchery come voting time. AIG is morally no better than the insane nurse who polluted patients just so she could get her fix.

I’ve often daydreamed lately…that if the politicians had ever decided there was an education crisis of prolific magnitude threatening this country…and had decided to spend a fraction on education of what they’ve minted for these pig f*ckers in our financial system. What would our nation look like? Or what if they spent it on medical research or medical coverage for all? What if the system had such a vested interest or cared so much for every individual person that their every potential could be put back to work for the greater good. But…alas. Humans are savage creatures. For all our gadgetry and science we still prowl on our own like dumb prehistoric thugs. For all the might in our governances the system is breaking down. In ways nobody saw coming. The leaders better get hip. There are too many swells of grief in motion here. Too many lives clinging to weak yarns of hope. Beltway “business as usual” won’t weather this front. The backs of states are breaking. This snake eating its own tail has to sever the cycle. Obama and his people better be right…because as things get worse you know more of the innocent will get ravaged in the fight to the finish. I have hope, but I’m pretty damn terrified at the energy stewing these days.

The world can’t stop talking about Michael Jackson. So I suppose I’ll ad my own limited verbal spew on the topic. The years of my youth were certainly affected by the man with one glittering glove…and I was just as shocked as everybody else upon learning of his sudden passing. What I noticed in my own reaction was, I’d always presumed MJ would end up “buying the farm” at an extreme old age…helped along by a constant flow of money to every medical advancement available to extend life expectancy. But (if the allegations prove true) his unlimited access to a higher medical league of drugs put all his ambitions to rest. I for one can’t understand how any doctor could resort to regularly putting a patient into a medically induced coma and not think something is seriously wrong with such a dangerous situation. Chalk another one up to stupidity being the net result of endless ego.

Further into the world of pig headed Neanderthals, Sarah Palin announced her resignation well before her term in office is up. Many folks are speculating that she’s quitting so she can try and follow Reagan’s footsteps…taking some time to gear up for a victorious presidential run. If this is really the situation, I can’t wait for the next election. She’ll have even less real world experience to speak of by then…and the debates would surely lay her punk ass methods to waste. I wonder if Alaskans lament ever voting for her.

In the criminal world, Bernie Madoff’s wife broke her silence and issued a statement regarding her husband’s maniacal mayhem. She claims shock and shame due to her husband’s actions. But, when it came time to vacate her multi-million dollar home she asked if she could hang onto a fur coat. No doubt this was no cheap trinket…maybe she wanted to cling to one last testament to their fraudulent billion dollar glory days. Yet I can’t somehow shake the idea that after all the wretched suffering Madoff has generated, his wife had the balls to even ask about keeping anything. Did she think people would commiserate with her? Did she think nobody would notice she bed with heartless scum? Did she take up a job with the Swiss banking system? If any average person harbored common criminals there would be a guns-drawn storm at the gates by the authorities and local media. Yet, the actions of aiding and abetting opulent villany by even wealthier entities seem far beyond the reach of logical international law. On that I say, f*ck the Madoff family, f*ck the Swiss…and f*ck the tax dodging thugs whom they defend vehemently. They should all be mercilessly flogged in public for crimes against humanity.

The only bit of news I can rant positively on is the fact the Obama administration is putting to limit/end institutions considered “to big to fail” in our financial system. I love the idea that they’d have to plan for their own funeral. Though, it probably won’t amount to a can of beans since none of the policies will be exacted in time to save us from the pit the system is in now. But these days, any good news should be joyfully embraced.

That which goes up, most certainly goes down.

The lands are beleaguered with angst. It almost plays out like an Intervention episode…where an individual is surrounded by those forcefully (and wishfully) attempting to instill reason to the weakly addicted. The lust & clamoring for more leverage (credit) has dug a rabbit hole far too deep for our Alice. I learned this the hard way myself not too long ago…where, after that tragic day on September 11^th, I wandered aimlessly trying to find decent income while overloaded with the ball & chain of my spending sprees. It took an embarrassing length of time to get things in order…and during that time I watched the housing frenzy tempt me with the notions of buying a home with no money down (even with my battered credit scores). I’d learned by then that any deal too good to be true was to be met with extreme skepticism…like so many slot machines and game tables in Vegas…like that feigned interest by the ladies at gentlemen’s clubs (or Hooters). Now Detroit’s Big Three are even in the mix, with their decades of over spending, their time has come as well. They could have become streamlined & more competitive long ago…but they chose bloat over sensibility. The universal fear is no one knows when or how to make the bleeding stop…or where will it end…or whether another unforeseen geyser of hemorrhaging will suddenly appear elsewhere. The Great Contraction is upon us…countless billion$ in growth now returning to sustainable levels…at a rate the machine can realistically sustain over time. And it ain’t pretty. Where will the people go? What will they do for work? Who can fix this…when…and how? I hold great optimism for Obama & his chosen people. But this interim period between administrations seems like a chaotic time that is too sensitive to disruption…where anything can happen. If the Almighty is listening, the raucous roars of prayer by the masses must be deafening.

What happened here? We were supposed to be the most admired nation of the planet. For decades our government touted our successes around the globe with the confidence that our system should be emulated by everyone. Now, that arrogant pulpit has a mud all over it. The nations we’ve scorned over the years would be bathing in their own delight if it weren’t for the fact we’ve spread our gloom across all currencies and borders. The most tragic part of this chapter is it stems from the most primal of all the world’s sins: greed. You’d think this was a difficult new concept to absorb…but humans are inherently rotten. Our government became the puppets of cannibal-capitalism gone awry…and the “Wild Wild West” days of debt trading have done themselves in. What a fitting way to send off the Bush administration in its final days.

Back in high school I had a Social Studies teacher who claimed the pages of history had shown us the odds were pretty good that America would evolve into a more socialist type of government. Well, here we are…holding onto a freight train going over a cliff. The super wealthy blame everybody else…and we’ve not seen one person or company being held accountable (a few brow beatings at best), if nothing else to at least reassure us that justice is still alive and well. But with so much deregulation, what laws are they going to charge people with breaking? Other than of course telling investors the house is sound when termites are feeding on the foundation.

All this vaguely reminds me of General Motors and the EV1…they were basically ahead of their time on this one, and they’d be way out ahead of their competitors by now…but their lusting over SUV profits & the bantering of their buddies in Big Oil crushed that project. Now, GM is fighting for its survival for just long enough to get their next electric vehicle into the showrooms. Hopefully by then people can actually get the credit they need to buy one.

The Patriot Act and the array of big bailouts of Wall Street’s fat pigs has slid a monstrous socialist movement in under our feet…not as we slept oblivious to current events, but while we all watched in horror and dismay.

During the first presidential election night when G.W.B. won, one of my coworkers at the time ranted on and on about how if G.W.B. didn’t win there would be a surge in capital gains taxes and more. Well Allison, your boy won, twice, and how does that capital gains tax argument fair now? I’d bet every wealthy body, 401K, hedge fund, CDS jockey, General Electric executive, Wall Street trader, mortgage holder, Countrywide mortgage broker, pension fund, AIG investor, Lehman Brothers employee, and the rest of the world would gladly trade a bit of taxation & regulation over the Katrina-type chaos financials are in now. Debt overflowed the dyke, and a proud system is in ruins…some bodies won’t be found for months. How ironic.

If you’re a Republican running for office this November, you better start praying and donate boatloads to worthy charities. You’re going to need all the karma points you can get.

With so many Americans loosing their homes or already living on sardines and crackers after having lost their homes…after watching their savings evaporate….while taxpayers watched all the excesses which Wall Street is famous for, the rich became bloated hogs…with 2:1 of the public not blind enough to not blame the GOP for our woes, and an unjust war in Iraq…I’d find it a hard sell trying to get the American people to vote for a presidential candidate who has 7 houses and a vice president who’s 7000 member town charged rape victims up to $1000 for their examinations. If by some chance McCain/Pailin do win, it will be by the skin of their teeth and with the help of illegal manipulation.

The Republicans are opposing edits to the $700Bn bailout of Wall Street directed at limiting executive pay and allowing courts to reduce payments for borrowers with a house in foreclosure. Is that really so unreasonable given the funk we’re in? Maybe they should require every CEO & member of upper management that needs to be bailed out to work 2500 hours a year in soup kitchens, rebuilding distressed neighborhoods & helping those living in tent cities. Let these wealthy honchos directly face the mess they made. Let them bathe in the sorrow they’ve put thousands of families in, and get their damn hands dirty. Maybe, just maybe, these ultra rich dimwits will have a remote sense of cause for their fellow human. Ahh, who’m I kidding, they sold their souls a long time ago…and they could give a rat’s ass about those not in the circles of the ultra elite.

It’s truly great to have friends in influential positions. I’m sure if Treasury Secretary Paulson’s mother was battling a life threatening disease with no medical insurance & about to loose her home to foreclosure, there would have been a fierce bill proposed in an equally swift manner to tackle many of our nation’s ills long before this golden parachute for Wall Street. But that will never happen since he’s a Goldman Sachs alumnus…even if he up and quit tomorrow or G.W.B. fired him, Mr. Paulson could still live out wonderful years in lavish opulence…and he’d take care of mama (or at least one would hope).

Mr. Paulson effectively terrified Congress into approving a legally immune blank check to the tune of $700Bn+ for global financial behemoths within a week…and he doesn’t want CEO compensation capped for institutions that seek taxpayer money to save them from their own undoing. I’d think a CEO might put their avidity aside for a few moments rather than let their company go bust (but what the hell do I know). And, naturally, the lobbyists and financial servicing firms are wetting their shorts/frothing at the mouth at the prospect of getting their greedy paws on this legislation.

Isn’t it just too convenient that with so much deregulation, nobody is going to jail for any of this mess? Since the U.S. is diving head first towards socialism they should bring back 20 lashes in public square…with Angelo Mozilo first in line to receive his administrative punishment. Now that the argument for democracy/capitalism is dying, maybe they’ll finally cut Cuba some slack.

Aye, these are wild financial times we’re in, matee. What amazes me is, when Enron defrauded people & the market out of billion$, everybody cried for blood. And the public got something close to the flogging spectacle they clamored for. The CEO worked himself into a heart attack before going to his prison sentencing, and a few top henchmen got convicted and are doing time. But, I’d bet you’d be hard pressed to find any such focused blame & legal lashing for the economic turmoil unfolding at our feet. I mean, come on….every major economist in the world is placing blame on Alan Greenspan, the Bush administration, predatory lending, complex financial vehicles, and the charge toward more deregulation. But what really gets me is comments like those from Dana Perino (White House spokeswoman) who tried to defer the blame for this financial turmoil on Congress. I can’t help but fantasize about strapping these arrogant idiots to chairs in front of speakers brandishing the unyielding volume & tones of The Thrones (Joe Preston). I know it won’t produce any epiphany toward the greater good of humankind. But it might make a few people feel better. The moral of the story is, if you’re rich enough, you can throw the U.S. into the moral equivalent of a hostage crisis…and the wealthy greed-sleeze will protect their own.

This just in from the Bush administration’s deregulation generals…”Taxpayers…we screwed up, and it will cost YOU a total of $900BN. This is money that we don’t have, but we’ll sell more of our soul to the global markets in order to pay for it. And just so do you don’t worry your hearts about wealthy executives feeling any real pain for their stuplidity, we’ll be sure that Robert B. Willumstad (CEO of A.I.G.) will get his $8.7MM severance package…even after we threw in $85BN to save his company. Furthermore, a mediocre apology goes out to the millions of homeowners loosing their properties to foreclosure…we won’t be saving you or your jobs, we, the Republicans, only worry about the rich, and if you’re in foreclosure…you’re not rich…so go pound salt.”

The ice man has cometh for Lehman Brothers, and it ain’t a pretty sight. I hope the deregulation lobbyists & Alan Greenspan are pleased with themselves. Expecting the mortgage industry to behave for the good of all is like pulling out the stoplights & being shocked there are occasional drag racers & roadkill. It’s a bad year to be a banker in NYC. The frenzy of greed had to end sometime…given all the smart Ivy Leaguers with influence somewhere, you’d think somebody would notice the trouble brewing…but I guess by then the monster was out, and who was going to make an attempt at squelching that freight train.