Greek Government Splits

We (and by "we" I mean the world's very shaky economy) really need Greece to tough it out, and get through a tough time.  That includes the people and Government.  I fear a default is inevitable, and they will leave the EU.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/02/201221010713951728.html

Lloyd Blankfein Get's a BONUS

Lloyd is on the left..

So the Goldman Sucks CEO warrants a $15M bonus after driving Greece and thr US economies into the dirt. Pretty good world we have here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12316309

How Right Was I ??

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/09/wall-street-sees-new-prof_n_794245.html

After fleecing Americans on getting their homes, and now tossing them out, the Banks want the Assets! That way, when they let the economy improve, they can let us little people buy back into the houses the banks hold.

It's the tail end of a money making swindle that stands unmatched in all history. And the orchestrators are the same assholes that want extra tax breaks. I don't know what else to call this, but sheer "Class Warfare".

America is building a class of indentured servants (slaves), and all of us in the middle class are not long from being in the line.  No matter what "party" you support, we are all being played..

FDIC To Sue Failed Bank Managers

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/08/post_545_n_756059.html

Hell yeah!!!!

AIG Pays Out For Fraud

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10670341

Now that we (the US) own AIG, this isn't good news. Unless you are the ones getting paid that is.

Goldmine Sacks Pays (A bit)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10656699
Goldman coughs up $550 Million to make the problem go way. It's a pittance to them as a whole, but a win for the people Goldman ripped off.

It's on top of the banking regulation passing and BP closing their mess in the Gulf. I feel like I am on a cloud here!

Alvin Greene

Um, ok... South Carolina, Are you really doing this? I harken back to Steve shouting "ALVIN!!"

Greece Gets 110Bn Euro Bailout

That's equal to $146 BN dollars here in the US. It's funny how the whole world, now seems happy to reward bad behaviour and bad management, at the highest levels. The more you screw up, the bigger the bailout. Pay attention kids, you need to hear this so you know what not to do when you get older.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8656649.stm

Goldman Sachs Loses $10Bn In A Day

It is amazing what a fraud charge can do?? I love it, click here to hear my comments; MY VOICE

http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-47762320100416

Treasury Sells CitiGroup Stock

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/treasury_to_sell_citigroup_shares_x1tvfryuGT1s2jx2P0QJYI

Turning a profit would be nice. To have one thing the government did actually work, would be impressive.

So, Who Voted For Those Bank Bailouts??

cartoon by Kamensky

The House keeps records; http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll681.xml

Some notables are John Bo[eh]ner, Pete Hoekstra and Frank Wolf. Ninety one Republicans supported this in the House.

In the Senate, it went like this: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00213

Here we see Dole, Ensign, Lindsay Graham (OMG), Kyl, Lugar, McCain, McConnell, Shelbey, Vitter and may more commit "Generational Theft".

I am fairly sure I have heard each of these guys harp about the US bailing out banks, but they all voted for it. It was signed by George Bush in late 2008.

Stimulate This..

Bush's Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, cost $180+ Billion, February 2008
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/tax/JCT_Revenue_Table_Final_Bill.pdf

Bush's H.R. 3221, Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, cost $25 Billion
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/95xx/doc9597/hr3221.pdf

Bush allows the Fed to Loan (give) AIG $85 Billion under the Federal Reserve Act, September 2008.

Bush allows the FDIC to enter a "loss sharing" deal with Citigroup on a $312 Billion pool of loans (mortgages). This would have Citigroup taking the first $42B in losses and the FDIC taking the rest. I have contacted FDIC for a status report on this "agreement", no word yet.

29 September2008, first attempt at FDIC's TARP is rejected in the House.

3 October2008, Bush signs Congress' TARP into Law, cost $700 Billion.

Whole timeline, pretty interesting; http://timeline.stlouisfed.org/index.cfm?p=timeline

I guess my point is; Bush authorized about a trillion dollars (maybe more) of our tax dollars in the run-up to the financial catastrophe, and I didn't hear anyone crying "generational theft" until Obama did the same with the Recovery Act. Ironic?

Bailout Tax

Heard about this? Obama wants to tax the big banks that took bailout money, just enough to get all the rest of it back. Of the $700+B, I figure we have gotten back about $600B (2/3rds better than expected). Not bad, eh? Finishing the job sounds good to me, since it took less than a year for these assholes to turn around their businesses and start earning again.

Enter Republicans: Quiet so far, but I expect they will try to block this, just to make sure Democrats can't get credit for doing something right. Even Fox News is quiet on this one. It's like having a "Trump Card".

Banks Paying Back The Bailout

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8091689.stm

That's good, um...we need the interest too guys. Just take it out of all the profit you are getting after bumping up everyone's finance charges and fees.

Fannie/Freddie Bonuses

http://www.startribune.com/business/42417792.html

Well, if this doesn't chap my ass, nothing else will. Those are my tax dollars and out of the 7600 employees getting bonuses, I bet a select few will get huge ones.

Th average would be $27,600 each, but you know most of them will get about $500 and a few bastards will get millions. I want my $210 Million back!!! Lets sell off that campus and put these assholes in the shitty empty offices downtown in Crystal City. I sound a little angry, huh?

The GM of GM Gets Sacked

This is the Govenor of Michigan on the topic. I like her, but these car company bailouts are just subsidising her state, and she knows it.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

AIG Exec Reigns

This is pretty funny, and I see they guy's point, but he is a little out of touch. I have been in similar positions, but had no where near the amount of money he is talking about involved.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25desantis.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=Jake%20DeSantis&st=cse&scp=1

I know some people where I work who say things like "what poor people"? They do this because they live in their posh neighborhood and never see the people really being screwed by this bailout when they drive home in the BMW. Their only exposure is the beggers on the way to, or waiters/waitresses there when they get lunch, and probably under-tip. What do you people say to these people?

How's Your Floods?

One really cool thing I heard today on NPR, was that part of the economic "bailout" was to go towards buying Farm easements that would allow controlled flooding in areas that are prone to it. Farmers will fight this, because no one wants "their land" under water.

What people don't seem to get is that this flooding not only fertilizes the land, it keeps floods from being worse downstream. Everyone wants to send the problems "downstream". Lunacy.

These farmers need to move to higher ground for high yield crops and plant lesser needed crops (grasses) on the flood planes. It's not rocket science, it is common sense, right? I'm not even a farmer...

Um, France Is Closed Today

I see their point, I guess the fact that we see the US government doing something about the economy, makes the difference. Even if we don't agree with the tactics.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7951949.stm

Who Screwed The Economy?

Phil Gramm started it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Gramm

A Republican Senator (started out as a Democrat), who switched parties in 1983, probably because of who was President at the time? What an asshole.

So if you look at this http://banking.senate.gov/conf/fintl1.pdf

See page 7, item D: "(D) Issuing or selling instruments representing interests in pools of assets permissible for a bank to hold directly.". They are setting up for the knockout...yep, slick Willy signed it too.

This let the banks pool mortgages and consider them an "asset", thus they are something the can put on the market. It allowed the double leveraging to start things off back in 2000.

Then these same "assets" were allowed to be insured, which is why once the Mortgages started failing, AIG owed a lot of people a whole lot of money. So now we are paying AIG to pay the people they owe, who already made a ton of cash from premiums when these "assets" were doing well.

It's not much different than the ponzi scheme Madoff pulled, just this is "legal".