Nonetheless, even in these tough times, talented bankers are likely to find opportunities elsewhere that promise far more than $500,000.
INTERVIEWER: What did you do for your last firm?
UNEMPLOYED INVESTMENT BANKER: I helped it lose $60 billion.
INTERVIEWER: YOU'RE HIRED
| Amount Invested | Estimated Value | Subsidy % | Subsidy $ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citigroup | $25 billion | $15.5 billion | 38% | $9.5 billion |
| Wells Fargo | $25 billion | $23.3 billion | 7% | $1.8 billion |
| JP Morgan Chase | $25 billion | $20.6 billion | 18% | $4.4 billion |
| Bank of America | $15 billion | $12.5 billion | 17% | $2.6 billion |
| Morgan Stanley | $10 billion | $5.8 billion | 42% | $4.2 billion |
| Goldman Sachs | $10 billion | $7.5 billion | 25% | $2.5 billion |
| PNC | $7.6 billion | $5.5 billion | 27% | $2.1 billion |
| U.S. Bancorp | $6.6 billion | $6.3 billion | 5% | $0.3 billion |
Next, an analysis of two of the emergency interventions (the analysis was done before Bank of America received an extra $20 billion last month):
| Amount Invested | Estimated Value | Subsidy % | Subsidy $ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIG | $40 billion | $14.8 billion | 63% | $25.2 billion |
| Citigroup | $20 billion | $10 billion | 50% | $10 billion |
The economic crisis was not caused by a lack of government spending, so it's hard to see how an increase of government spending will solve it.
Democrats believe in something more or less like standard textbook macroeconomics; Republicans believe in a doctrine under which tax cuts are the universal elixir, and government spending is almost always bad.
as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate
Vote Summary| Question: | |||
| Vote Number: | 31 | Vote Date: | January 29, 2009, 08:57 PM |
| Required For Majority: | 1/2 | Vote Result: | Bill Passed |
| Measure Number: | H.R. 2 (Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 ) | ||
| Measure Title: | A bill to amend title XXI of the Social Security Act to extend and improve the Children's Health Insurance Program, and for other purposes. | ||
| Vote Counts: | YEAs | 66 |
| NAYs | 32 | |
| Not Voting | 1 |
| NAYs ---32 | ||
| Barrasso (R-WY) Bennett (R-UT) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Cornyn (R-TX) Crapo (R-ID) | DeMint (R-SC) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hatch (R-UT) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Kyl (R-AZ) | McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Voinovich (R-OH) Wicker (R-MS) |
An October 24, 2008, poll conducted by the Democratic research firm Greenberg-Quinlan-Rosner has Rush Limbaugh enjoying a public-approval rating of just 21 percent among likely voters, while 58 percent have “cold” feelings toward the right-wing radio-talk-show host. Limbaugh was the least popular of the all the political figures the firm polled. He polls seven points lower than Rev. Jeremiah “God Damn America” Wright and eight points below former Weather Underground domestic terrorist William Ayers.
Limbaugh is so unpopular that only 44 percent of Republican voters reported “warm” feelings toward him, ten points less than those who felt the same way about Limbaugh’s top competitor, Fox News’ Sean Hannity, and a full 20 points lower than Fox News itself.
He was worried about the subprime component of the CDO market. He had examined the annual report of a company involved in the subprime business. He was stunned, he told his colleagues at the time.
The subprime loans underlying many CDOs formed too large a part of the packaged debt, increasing the risk to unacceptable levels. Those loans could default at any time, anywhere across the country because the underwriting processes had been so shoddy. The diversification was a myth -- if the housing market went bust, the subprimes would collapse, like a house of cards.
Cassano decided it was time to stop. Gorton explained the decision to investors during the December 2007 webcast: "We stopped writing this business in late 2005 based on fundamental analysis and based on concerns that the model was not going to be able to handle declining underwriting standards."
By then, the firm had $80 billion worth of existing CDOs that included subprime mortgages as underlying assets.
Despite Obama appeals, left-right war still rages
Feb 4 05:12 AM US/Eastern
AFP
Michael Harrison, editor and publisher of the industry magazine TALKERS, said the back-and-forth in the stimulus debate underlined Limbaugh's enduring relevance for a large swathe of the US public.
"In my opinion it elevates Limbaugh's position as an entertainer and broadcaster. And it has diminished the people who should have a high position as politicians," he told AFP.
"Limbaugh and his ilk have taken over the position as the most influential voices in the Republican right, because of the vacuum of leadership by the party itself."
2/1/09: President Barack Obama has disgraced himself and the United States.
1/4/09: Historians will look at 2008 and say it was the year that America ceased to be a great superpower. A war-weary public threw in the towel against Islamic fascism, and embraced President-elect Barack Obama´s policy of appeasement.
12/14/08: President-elect Barack Obama and his team are modeling their domestic agenda on President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Keynesian liberalism. They are seeking to forge a modern, 21st century version of the New Deal. There is, however, one major problem. The original New Deal was a dismal failure.
CIA-directed airstrikes against al-Qaida leaders and facilities in Pakistan over the past six to nine months have been so successful, according to senior U.S. officials, that it is now possible to foresee a "complete al-Qaida defeat" in the mountainous region along the border with Afghanistan.
The officials say the terrorist network's leadership cadre has been "decimated," with up to a dozen senior and midlevel operatives killed as a result of the strikes and the remaining leaders reeling from the repeated attacks.
"The enemy is really, really struggling," says one senior U.S. counterterrorism official. "These attacks have produced the broadest, deepest and most rapid reduction in al-Qaida senior leadership that we've seen in several years."
Another senior U.S. official described "a significant, significant degradation of al-Qaida command and control in recent months."
SEN. REED: There's another aspect. There are so many with respect to Afghanistan. But when there are incidents in combat actions of collateral casualties, disputes about whether they are civilians or whether they are just combatants, I think having more of these types of enablers, particularly the intelligence platforms, UAVs, might miniize that. Is that something that you consider as -- ?
SEC. GATES: I think it would help. The truth of the matter is, I think 40 percent of the air missions that are called in are called in by our allies because they don't have enough forces there. So this is not strictly an American problem, if you will.
But I will tell you that I believe that the civilian casualties are doing us enormous harm in Afghanistan and we have got to do better in terms of avoiding casualties. And I say that knowing full well the Taliban mingle among the people, use them as barriers; but when we go ahead and attack, we play right into their hands. And we have got to figure out a better way to do these things or to have the Afghans in the lead, because my worry is that the Afghans come to see us as part of their problem rather than part of their solution; and then we are lost.
“If you don’t pay your best people, you will destroy your franchise."
“You don’t have ‘best people’!” Mr. Stewart shouted. “You lost $27 billion! Do you live in Bizarro World?”
BEGALA: The real leader of the Republican Party in America today is a corpulent drug addict with a AM radio talk show, Rush Limbaugh. He's the real power in the Republican Party.
And for all the talk about taxpayer-financed bonuses, a lot of junior and midlevel executives have been told that they shouldn’t expect anything but their salaries this year. In a business where your bonus is often five times your base pay, that’s devastating news. And we’re talking about a line of work in which virtually all satisfaction is paycheck-dependent.
“Fact is that this is a terrible way to make a living — except for the money,” Ken Miller, a former vice chairman at Credit Suisse First Boston and now a private investor, said. “The lifestyle is terrible — the hours, the sucking up. These guys must feel like they’re the victims of a capricious god.”
FRANK: ...And as far as spending versus tax cuts, I think we need to fix some highway and bridges. I never saw a tax cut fix a bridge. I never saw a tax cut give us more public transportation...
Hamas is a terrorist organization that condones and facilitates suicide bombings and will kill every Jew on the planet if they have the chance. ... Hamas, supported by Iran, is clear about their goals: they want to wipe out Israel completely, utterly, with finality. But it’s not just Israel that Hamas wants to kill; they want to kill all Jews everywhere. Complete genocide.
And when Iran has the capacity to launch rockets over to Europe or the United States, one can count on it happening.
DEMINT: We can take a trillion dollars out of the economy and we're saying we might create 3 million jobs. If we leave it in the economy the economists at the Heritage Foundation say we create 18 million jobs, this is something we know...
The wild variations on the value of many bad bank assets can be seen by looking at one mortgage-backed bond recently analyzed by a division of Standard & Poor’s, the credit rating agency.
The financial institution that owns the bond calculates the value at 97 cents on the dollar, or a mere 3 percent loss. But S.& P. estimates it is worth 87 cents, based on the current loan-default rate, and could be worth 53 cents under a bleaker situation that contemplates a doubling of defaults. But even that might be optimistic, because the bond traded recently for just 38 cents on the dollar, reflecting the even gloomier outlook of investors.
Productivity grew very rapidly after 1933, the price level was stable, real interest rates were low, and liquidity was plentiful. We have calculated on the basis of just productivity growth that employment and investment should have been back to normal levels by 1936.
Household Income
Between 2006 and 2007, real median
household income rose 1.3 percent,
from $49,568 to $50,233 (Figure 1
and Table 1)—a level not statistically
different from the 1999 prerecession
income peak
Obama Blasts Wall Street Bonuses
The President calls payouts as firms seek bailouts "the height of irresponsibility"
By Phil Mintz and Theo Francis
January 29, 2009, 6:27PM EST
Business Week
Top Executives "Disconnected" from Real World
As Washington policymakers are struggling to come up with solutions to the financial crisis, the pay issue is moving to the forefront. Alice Rivlin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, told the National Economics Club in Washington that she was surprised by Citigroup's efforts to go ahead with the jet purchase and by Thain's "tin ear for the right thing to do in the circumstances."
Rivlin added: "We have created a culture of people at the top [of companies] who are disconnected from rest of world, people who don't talk to ordinary people. I know some of them, I'm on corporate boards with them. They've somehow got to get reconnected to the real world—and a lot of them will be, because they are losing their jobs."
The goal of Islam is a world living under Islam. Period. Who and what stands in their way? The US and her proxies -- Europe and Israel.
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