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Party Like It's 2009?
Submitted by Leo Kolivakis, publisher of Pension Pulse.
The Dow passes the 10,000 mark for the first time in a year and everyone is giddy, especially those hard working stiffs on Wall Street.
It was a tough year for the Wall Street bunch. They had to fight hard to get the bailouts they rightly deserved and now they're getting some bad press coverage over compensation they're doling out.
The nerve of those Main Street paupers! Don't they understand how hard it is on Wall Street? You have to get up early in the morning, listen to all those analysts, call your buy-side clients and sell them all the crap you don't believe in. It's the toughest job on earth.
And what's Joe and Jane Taxpayer so upset about? So they lost their jobs, can't get a loan for their small business, can't get financing to buy a new car, are struggling to make their mortgage payments and feed their kids.
Don't worry about it. In the social hierarchy, the banksters need to be fed first. That's the way things work. Once they're done trading away your pensions and all that money the Fed has lent them at zero interest, they might open up credit to the rest of society who don't have the politicians in their back pockets.
Yes folks, in due time, all that wealth will trickle down to the peasants who have to work for a living. Just be patient. Oh, you're hungry now? Facing a tough Christmas? Don't worry, those good Samaritans at Goldman Sachs are considering a billion dollar donation to charity. God bless their golden hearts. We need more good bankers like them.
What else can you do? Stop being so cynical and pessimistic, listening to smart economists like Paul Krugman. What do they know? Economists have predicted five of the last two recessions.
You're better off listening to kings of finance, like Blackstone's CEO who sees "more than greenshoots". Those private equity kingpins know what they're talking about and if they see "more than greenshoots," then good times are right around the corner.
And what about those pension parrots? I can't wait to hear them all sing the chorus on how they made money in 2009 as stocks roared back from March lows. All that "added value" has to be well compensated, even if it's nothing but (leveraged) beta.
Of course, I am being sarcastic in this post. My father listened to the news on Wall Street bonuses and asked me "have they no shame?". No dad, they have no shame. You see while you're working hard ten hour days for over forty years trying to help mentally ill patients get back on their feet, the psychos on Wall Street are going about their puny, ineffectual lives. I can hear Henry Miller rolling over in his grave!
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Where the hell is Wall Street Pro?
I'm reminded of this memorable optimist:
http://www.entertonement.com/clips/ypgxwppsvp--Amity-means-friendshipJaw...
***UPDATE: Bonus Trouble?***
Rob Shapiro of the Huffington Post asks, Who Really Will Pay for Goldman Sachs' $23 Billion in New Bonuses? Jeremy Warner of the London Telegraph reports Bonus trouble as Goldman Sachs clocks record revenues.
You want to save the country financially? Take away the voting rights of anyone over the age of 55 and anyone who does not pay federal taxes. Save the system for the children.
Dylan Ratigan has an interesting argument.
Ratigan said, "Especially when you talk nonsense." [VIDEO]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/14/dylan-ratigan-to-chamber_n_320397.html
This'll go down like toy r us. Giving away a few million and then spending hundreds of million ADVERTISING it.
"Talent must be rewarded"
If it isn't, our government-subsidized paper-movers will be forced to blow up a trading desk at a different bank
hi
I'm still learning, but I think my sources are telling me to get out of the water before Oct 19, 2009.
yes, you can never be ti careful, but the date is the 26th, but nevertheless, its always good to pull out ( in every sense of the phrase ) early ...
Weren't Krugman and Stiglitz calling for the nationalization of the U.S. banking system? If so, I think they were right. A year after the worst financial crisis in post-war history, nothing has changed on Wall Street and no serious reforms have been introduced to curb reckless risk-taking. The late George Carlin was right, they call it the "American Dream" because you have to be asleep to believe it!
Leo, with all due respect, but they were wrong. You Americans preach and are proud of your free market capitalism ( a system which isn't free, which has no free markets, and is not capitalism in most part ), yet when it comes to dealing with the severe crisis all you scream is nationalization. Well this is like reading the Communist manifesto. No, let them fail, that is the principle of the free market capitalism ( i.e. social Darwinism ) upon which the USA was built. Let the strong live and let the weak die. The strong will take their place and after a transitory period the system will be in a equilibrium once again until the strong become the weak and are replaced. Yes, there will be short term pain but on the long run the system will stabilize itself in a equilibrium and the gains will be substantial. This shit about nationalizing this or that is a anachronistic garbage straight out of the Communist manifesto. No nationalization, no assistance of any kind, just simple evolution. The problem with the USA is that it has halted the process described above and let herself to become a protectionist country for corrupt dinosaurs. That will be THE main reason of your downfall, and the knowing that YOU did nothing to stop it, when all the chance was given with the existence of the democratic electoral process ( well used to be ) and benefits granted to you by your constitution which are more grateful than in any other country on the planet.
CB,
I am Canadian and I am neither a socialist, nor a communist. George Orwell convinced me of that a long time ago. Now, we have a new animal farm, except this time the pigs are on Wall Street. It's not as simple as you claim, "let them fail". They got the government right where they want them. My prediction is that if they continue acting the way they do, they will get nationalized. At a minimum, regulators should ban hedge funds and prop desks at banks.
Sorry Leo, i ( falsely ) assumed you were an American, eventhough i know that you are from Montreal, but that fact has somehow slipped my mind. But, you get my point. We are at the point where we should not be, given all the tools which were provided. And i stay firmly with my conviction that they should fail ( albeit i know that this, in this day and age, is an impossibility ). Also i am old enough and experienced enough to recognize regulatory, legislative and political capture when i see it. And yes, i also think they will be nationalized if they continue down the road which they are heading now. There is no dispute about that. The only thing i am interested in is; will this seizure be peaceful or not.
EDIT: Also i know that you are not communist nor socialist; that part of my post wasn't meant for you, but for the political and economic theory Krugman and Stiglitz advocate.
CB,
I agree with you except you may be a little too critical of Krugman and Stiglitz. Some of my Marxist friends (a group of professors I meet with once a quarter) also criticize them for being too mainstream and not critical enough of the economics profession. They also think bankers are way overpaid and should be placed on salaries. Well, even Marxists can dream!
Krugman would be happy to see every single industry in the US nationalized, and begins every one of his arguments from this premise, so I hardly believe he's the most objective source to lay out claims that it would benefit the country in the long run. All the nationalization one can imagine won't do a damn bit of good if the cops refuse to enforce regulations that are in place, and if you think executives won't find ways to obtain "most favored" status with government officials even in a nationalized environment, you're kidding yourself.
Only by letting the TBTF banks fail could there have been an incentive for the healthy institutions to survive and prosper in the long run. Stating that the banks simply need to be nationalized to solve the problem is buying into the idea that the government needs to prevent failure of "anything," including big business.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8KQmps-Sog
Nothing to post - just an easy captcha question to get out of the way. Carry on.
Krugman's correct that we aren't out of the woods by a long shot, but his remedies aren't any better than what the Fed or anyone in the Obama administration are carrying out. Krugman still thinks that the government should be handing out more stimulus money even though we're $12 trillion in the hole (and nearly $2 trillion just this year alone), C4C was a miserable failure, and the FTHB credit will probably have to be extended to keep housing demand from falling even further through the floor.
Real reform isn't going to start to occur until the banks are forced to put all their trash on their books and the Fed is audited. But that would pop the current stock market bubble instantly, so the odds of something meaningful happening are pretty slim.
Wow, just wow ! Krugman, i mean come on; have some respect for this place FFS !
if i was persistent, or better said less disgusted with WS; i would go job hunting in one of the main WS players just to show them how big of a morons most of them are; and how things could be run more efficiently, with less disturbance and more contribution to the society without losing any money while doing this; but im not, so i will just enjoy in watching them implode into their own stupidity and historical, and any other, insignificance.
Most people here on ZH would do hell of a better job in running a WS firm then those mofos.
Yea CB. Now would be a good time for Chumbawamba to chime in.
i miss Chumbawombat; i wonder where he is; probably chasing cats round the neighbourhood and selling them to pawnshops for gold.
WORD... GS has a guy in the world bank Robert Zoellick, they'll fund his 401k
knowing the nature of and the culture of GS i think the recipient of the charitable donation will be the charity which promotes genocide and children mutilation.
now that could be anybody...UN, for starters
I would think Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but they dont need the money; so, yeah the UN is my first choice, closely followed by Israel*
* let the flame begin ...
usually, I would bristle at that kind of comment, unfortunately, tho, it is true. thanks for saying what I could not. ... you know, I am politically correct.
The U.N. is first on the list because they refuse to adequately condemn Israel?
is that GS donation going to the 'human fund'? I've got questions if George Costanza has any affiliation...
Leo is that artwork in house... Who's Matson
I like Heli-Ben putting out the fire with money