I think that its fair to say that a number of us here suspect that a fair number of those populating the financial establishment are there by virtue of being the idiot children of America's aristocracy. Some of us have probably even said as much. This though is far less entertaining than watching one of their own come out and say it.
On Friday that's precisely what happened. Andrew Lahde, a manager at a Los Angeles based hedge fund sent an email out to all in his firm telling them that he was quitting the game and:
Recently, on the front page of Section C of the Wall Street Journal, a hedge fund manager who was also closing up shop (a $300 million fund), was quoted as saying, “What I have learned about the hedge fund business is that I hate it.” I could not agree more with that statement. I was in this game for the money. The low hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale, and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly receive) rose to the top of companies such as AIG,Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government. All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless America.
Feels like something out of Vonnegut novel.
Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned.......
The sums that continue to be spent by Wall Street firms on payroll, payoffs and, most controversially, bonuses appear to bear no relation to the losses incurred by investors in the banks. Shares in Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have declined by more than 45% since the start of the year. Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have fallen by more than 60%. JP MorganChase fell 6.4% and Lehman Brothers has collapsed...
Many critics of investment banks have questioned why firms continue to siphon off billions of dollars of bank earnings into bonus pools rather than using the funds to shore up the capital position of the crisis-stricken institutions. One source said: "That's a fair question - and it may well be that by the end of the year the banks start review the situation."
The numbers are shocking. This is for the first 9 months of this year.
Just to put this in context, both banks are being offered $10 billion each from the US Treasury in order to be "recapitalized."
Why is it that when working America is being asked to bear the burden of a bailout, that the Aristocracy isn't even being asked to give up bonuses that they haven't earned?
Comments
bonuses
That is absolutely incredible. They have the money to recapitalize and put it in their own pockets.
Might break down those bonuses further because I sincerely doubt they are spread evenly between employees.
What's more amazing is how scant attention this will get in the MSM. Nope, just more reasons why they need to squeeze working people even further.
another good read on this
Boy, they are just stuffing their pockets before this administration is out the door.
blogging stocks has a good post.
Wow...
I liked this question:
We already know that there is a criminal investigation underway at Lehman, and does any one really think that this was limited?
I think that the time has come for Congress to authorize a amnesty on financial crimes in which bankers would be allowed to avoid prison if the provide financial restitution to the victims of their crimes.
How many billions of dollars have been siphoned off through banks bonuses that reflect the books being cooked?
Let's make a deal with the bastards.
You get a get out of jail card, but you have to cought up the cash you received as product of your criminal actions, and are forbidden from holding a job in the financial sector. Early retirement in Puerto Vallarta or prison bitch, the decision is yours boys.
Sarcastic cartoon
This was actually on Minyanville, a Fox affiliated blog and they are making sarcastic episodes on the fact that these CEOS can do anything and walk away with millions each.
This is super cool because it uses funny with some damning facts.
Are we surprised?
Nope, this is classic Republican behavior as refined and perfected by BushCo. Presents us with a good opportunity to work on the 'Republicans are worse than Terrorists...' meme.
Think I will do a post on same.
'When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.'
Banks Admit Bailout Won't Work
The banks have already admitted that the bailouts won't work.
So, other than making the super-wealthy even wealthier (at taxpayer expense), what exactly is this bailout doing?
You seem to know the answer so why....
....the question?
This is about Boosh's 'have-mores'....
Having more.
Lot's more.
A friend of mine pointed out if you took the 'BailOut' money and divided it by the population every man, woman, child and baby would get approx. 2k....
If they all spend even half of that what sort of stimulus to the economy would that be?
Eh?
They could put the unspent part in their bank....
'When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.'