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Guest Post: A Christmas Message From America's Rich
From Matt Taibbi
A Christmas Message From America's Rich
It seems America’s bankers are tired of all the abuse. They’ve decided to speak out.
True, they’re doing it from behind the ropeline, in front of friendly crowds at industry conferences and country clubs, meaning they don’t have to look the rest of America in the eye when they call us all imbeciles and complain that they shouldn’t have to apologize for being so successful.
But while they haven’t yet deigned to talk to protesting America face to face, they are willing to scribble out some complaints on notes and send them downstairs on silver trays. Courtesy of a remarkable story by Max Abelson at Bloomberg, we now get to hear some of those choice comments.
Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, for instance, is not worried about OWS:
“Who gives a crap about some imbecile?” Marcus said. “Are you kidding me?”
Former New York gurbernatorial candidate Tom Golisano, the billionaire owner of the billing firm Paychex, offered his wisdom while his half-his-age tennis champion girlfriend hung on his arm:
“If I hear a politician use the term ‘paying your fair share’ one more time, I’m going to vomit,” said Golisano, who turned 70 last month, celebrating the birthday with girlfriend Monica Seles, the former tennis star who won nine Grand Slam singles titles.
Then there’s Leon Cooperman, the former chief of Goldman Sachs’s money-management unit, who said he was urged to speak out by his fellow golfers. His message was a version of Wall Street’s increasingly popular If-you-people-want-a-job, then-you’ll-shut-the-fuck-up rhetorical line:
Cooperman, 68, said in an interview that he can’t walk through the dining room of St. Andrews Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida, without being thanked for speaking up. At least four people expressed their gratitude on Dec. 5 while he was eating an egg-white omelet, he said.
“You’ll get more out of me,” the billionaire said, “if you treat me with respect.”
Finally, there is this from Blackstone CEO Steven Schwartzman:
Asked if he were willing to pay more taxes in a Nov. 30 interview with Bloomberg Television, Blackstone Group LP CEO Stephen Schwarzman spoke about lower-income U.S. families who pay no income tax.
“You have to have skin in the game,” said Schwarzman, 64. “I’m not saying how much people should do. But we should all be part of the system.”
There are obviously a great many things that one could say about this remarkable collection of quotes. One could even, if one wanted, simply savor them alone, without commentary, like lumps of fresh caviar, or raw oysters.
But out of Abelson’s collection of doleful woe-is-us complaints from the offended rich, the one that deserves the most attention is Schwarzman’s line about lower-income folks lacking “skin in the game.” This incredible statement gets right to the heart of why these people suck.
Why? It's not because Schwarzman is factually wrong about lower-income people having no “skin in the game,” ignoring the fact that everyone pays sales taxes, and most everyone pays payroll taxes, and of course there are property taxes for even the lowliest subprime mortgage holders, and so on.
It’s not even because Schwarzman probably himself pays close to zero in income tax – as a private equity chief, he doesn’t pay income tax but tax on carried interest, which carries a maximum 15% tax rate, half the rate of a New York City firefighter.
The real issue has to do with the context of Schwarzman’s quote. The Blackstone billionaire, remember, is one of the more uniquely abhorrent, self-congratulating jerks in the entire world – a man who famously symbolized the excesses of the crisis era when, just as the rest of America was heading into a recession, he threw himself a $5 million birthday party, featuring private performances by Rod Stewart and Patti Labelle, to celebrate an IPO that made him $677 million in a matter of days (within a year, incidentally, the investors who bought that stock would lose three-fourths of their investments).
So that IPO birthday boy is now standing up and insisting, with a straight face, that America’s problem is that compared to taxpaying billionaires like himself, poor people are not invested enough in our society’s future. Apparently, we’d all be in much better shape if the poor were as motivated as Steven Schwarzman is to make America a better place.
But it seems to me that if you’re broke enough that you’re not paying any income tax, you’ve got nothing but skin in the game. You've got it all riding on how well America works.
You can’t afford private security: you need to depend on the police. You can’t afford private health care: Medicare is all you have. You get arrested, you’re not hiring Davis, Polk to get you out of jail: you rely on a public defender to negotiate a court system you'd better pray deals with everyone from the same deck. And you can’t hire landscapers to manicure your lawn and trim your trees: you need the garbage man to come on time and you need the city to patch the potholes in your street.
And in the bigger picture, of course, you need the state and the private sector both to be functioning well enough to provide you with regular work, and a safe place to raise your children, and clean water and clean air.
The entire ethos of modern Wall Street, on the other hand, is complete indifference to all of these matters. The very rich on today’s Wall Street are now so rich that they buy their own social infrastructure. They hire private security, they live on gated mansions on islands and other tax havens, and most notably, they buy their own justice and their own government.
An ordinary person who has a problem that needs fixing puts a letter in the mail to his congressman and sends it to stand in a line in some DC mailroom with thousands of others, waiting for a response.
But citizens of the stateless archipelago where people like Schwarzman live spend millions a year lobbying and donating to political campaigns so that they can jump the line. They don’t need to make sure the government is fulfilling its customer-service obligations, because they buy special access to the government, and get the special service and the metaphorical comped bottle of VIP-room Cristal afforded to select customers.
Want to lower the capital reserve requirements for investment banks? Then-Goldman CEO Hank Paulson takes a meeting with SEC chief Bill Donaldson, and gets it done. Want to kill an attempt to erase the carried interest tax break? Guys like Schwarzman, and Apollo’s Leon Black, and Carlyle’s David Rubenstein, they just show up in Washington at Max Baucus’s doorstep, and they get it killed.
Some of these people take that VIP-room idea a step further. J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon – the man the New York Times once called “Obama’s favorite banker” – had an excellent method of guaranteeing that the Federal Reserve system’s doors would always be open to him. What he did was, he served as the Chairman of the Board of the New York Fed.
And in 2008, in that moonlighting capacity, he orchestrated a deal in which the Fed provided $29 billion in assistance to help his own bank, Chase, buy up the teetering investment firm Bear Stearns. You read that right: Jamie Dimon helped give himself a bailout. Who needs to worry about good government, when you are the government?
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It's worse than that even. The military swore to defend the constitution. Do they do that, or do they stand as enforcer behind the corrupt system that trashes our freedoms?
General Smedley Butler (USMC): "I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism"
When the Bankers made bad bets the Government (US Citizens bailed them out).
Yet, Americans lost their Homes, their Jobs their dignity, and in many cases their Family thru financial hardship. Plus, at least 3 Generations of Americans will be taxed to pay for their bad bets thru the strong arm of the Government, IRS thru Income Tax.
So, what is not to understand?
Home despot.....fuck 'em!
Taibbi had a few amusing, well timed articles, and I laughed as much as anyone at the vampire squid, but his banker bashing is getting a little long in the tooth for me. do something useful.
Well, I think Matt is awesome with his articles on the banksters. This article though, is populist pandering, where the financial crimes he usually writes about are replaced with class warfare designed as "red-meat" for the lynch-mob that has gathered around him.
All he's done with this article is to stir up misguided rage, as he's painted all of the rich with a single brush, while making sure I know that these people eat "egg-white omelets."
My opinion of him has been greatly reduced as a result of his use of these divide and conquer tactics. I used to have concern for his life, now I'm starting to wonder if he isn't just playing the role of controlled opposition, so that a coherent voice doesn't emerge on its own. Kinda like a Rush Limbaugh for the left.
I'm convinced Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, Beck, Bortz, etc, even AJ and OWS, are tools of the elite to keep the masses subdued.
Psycho warfare at its finest. Sheeple hear these broadcasters echo their anger and it calms them down. Sheeple attend an OWS protest and it calms them down.
Limbaugh, Hannity, et al, are one reason there won't be a revolution.
I don't see the problem with everyone paying into the system, even if its nominal. After all, isn't it the argument that people use the "infrastructure: so they should pay? Well, the "vaunted poor" use plenty of infrastructure, they do need a stake in the system, Anathema to the progressive, these votes would not be so reliable, the real idea behind it.
As the visitor from India once said: "I want to live in a country where the poor people are fat". Look around the Ghetto, I've seen plenty of behemoths who don't look all that food "insecure".
Are you just playing the part of ignorant fuck?
"Fat" is mostly the function of cheap, crappy "food." The incidences of obesity rose in parallel to the introduction of HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup). More wonders from the great "contributors" to society. And thus beget a rise in the medical industry...
Who's who
http://littlesis.org/list/111/Koch_Network_Participants%2C_Aspen_2010
I just love how they use the label "conservatives." Because as we all know, that's the only label that matters!
http://maxkeiser.com/2011/12/22/kr226-keiser-report-capitalism-without-c...
[KR226] Keiser Report: Capitalism Without Capital?
Posted on December 22, 2011 by stacyherbert
they all fall to earth in 31/2 minutes according to s.keen.
all the talking in the world won't change it.
Enough of this bullshit already.
I pay my federal taxes, I pay my state taxes, I pay my nyc taxes. I also donate to charity. I also took more risk than any of those whining little trust fund pricks will ever take in starting my own business that now employes over 50 people who are all in the 5%, most in the 2%, about a third in the 1%
We don't steal anyone's money, we don't cheat anyone, we do our jobs and we're damn good at it. If taxes need to be a bit higher, and govt expenses need to be a bit lower (we're talking about 5% more taxes and 5% less expenses, to give you an idea of what all this bullshit is about) then so be it.
If someone took a college loan for an incredible amount of money because he thought this would guarantee him a nice job (maybe as a mortgage broker, owner of a construction firm, RMBS sales desk guy, or any other bubble job) and because he thought if he pays this much he's graduating without doing any work... well I feel really sorry for him but he's going to eat his own putrid porridge.
If someone bought a house he knew he can't afford and then made things worse by taking a home equity loan, and then goes and demonstrates against evil bankers, well screw him.
There are assholes everywhere. The 99% are as guilty of being an unethical, lazy, greedy bastards as the 1%, they're just not as good at it, or not as lucky. If they want things to change then the only way is through a lot of hard work, high quality work, and more than a few years of high taxes for everyone.
Or we can vote in a new Congress and President that represents the original tenets of our Constitution, instead of using it for toilet paper. I notice you didn't mention this in your missive, but then, I think you're the kind of guy who doesn't want to confuse things with the facts and realities. You prefer to sacrifice the Nation because you've got yours, and the hell with everyone else. But you'll be alright if the revolution we're in is headed off by America taking back the White House and Congress. But on the other hand, if the revolution is allowed to continue (and there is nothing to stop that in place right now), you my friend, will get ground up in it just as bad, and maybe worse, than the lower income American's you seem to distain. Because a revolution leaves no one untouched, and you have much to lose, whereas, those lower members of the economic ladder do not; so I might be a little more careful if I were you, and I might try to foster a better understanding and empathy to those less fortunate as you, for they are both your protection and the jury of your peers.
Yes, that's the kind of rhetoric I was talking about.
There's no revolution coming. There's little support in the gen pop for one, and there's no believable template for a post-revolutionary world that works. Everyone still knows the USSR, Cuba, North Korea as recent examples (not to mention China) and nobody likes that. Last year people were still talking about the more social(ist) western Europe as a template, but what a bunch of clueles fascists they've turned out to be, eh?
Even if there were such a revolution, then I'd just go elsewhere and those lower on the economic ladder would be stuck here and still have nothing to lose, but also nothing to gain.
I'm suggesting a path should be taken that recognizes the problem cuts through all economic groups and that its solution is not more shifting of numbers from side to side, but rather in actual productive work.
I think you're the kind of guy who doesn't want to confuse things with the facts and realities.
After you say ...
Or we can vote in a new Congress and President that represents the original tenets of our Constitution, instead of using it for toilet paper.
Who isn't dealing with facts and realties here?
Vote in a Pres and congress that follow the constitution?
You really are in dreamland.
So much promise in this statement:
"We don't steal anyone's money, we don't cheat anyone, we do our jobs and we're damn good at it. If taxes need to be a bit higher, and govt expenses need to be a bit lower (we're talking about 5% more taxes and 5% less expenses, to give you an idea of what all this bullshit is about) then so be it."
but then you go on to say:
"The 99% are as guilty of being an unethical, lazy, greedy bastards as the 1%, they're just not as good at it, or not as lucky."
See dude, I was with you until the part in bold. You've basically just pissed on yourself there. So you're basically telling us that you're an unethical, greedy bastard but you're better at it and luckier than most. I'll give you points for being honest, even if it did take you 3/4 of a post for your honesty to surface.
Let me help with the reading comprehension dude.
Unless you take that to imply that everyone is a lazy greedy bastard, the only implication is that the lazy greedy bastards of the 99% are not as good at it or as lucky.
I'm glad we're all on the same page now.
You sound like the Home Depot jerk...
Tell us what business you're in so we can boycott you too...
I'm not boycotting your work ethic... But I'll just boycott you for sounding like a self righteous prick...
Sanctimony is so suave. It is one of my least favorite things.
Just boycott everything to be on the safe side, will save you some money too.
@ Stagflationary
I have to respond to this because it seems a running theme from disinformationland.
First, I don't think that 'the rich' should be in some category where they are blamed for anything. Most people agree, and don't feel, that the wealthy should be blamed for the ills of the world. I think a lot of this ill will towards 'rich people' is manufactured by the infomercial media, as a way to divide the country and create fake class warfare that does not exist.
What people are angry about, is bailing out insolvent failures and criminal enterprises passing themselves off as legitimate lending institutions and having these beneficiaries of our largess, continue to commit more financial crimes that do further damage our economy.
The TBTF banks and primary dealers like MF Global, seem to be run by gambling addicts, sociopaths, or criminally unethical people, who in order to place sure bets, fix the system by guaranteeing all risky bets with the tax payer's money. And yes, the politicians are to blame for accepting the money from these interests, as they are not in any way aligned with the interests of the majority of the American people.
All guilty parties are to blame, including us, for sitting idly by and allowing our country to turn into a Banana Republic.
That's very sensible, but let's look at the facts. (and believe me I have no shares in disiformation land and I'm for a substantially more equitable society, just not for people blaming others exclusively for their troubles)
Yes, the rich are being blamed for everything and in some very insedious ways - if some asshole private equity managers enjoy an outrageous tax break, then, as every occupier will tell you, every rich person pays just 15%. Some multinational companies hide money off shore, then every corporate is evading taxes, and so on. The fact that the irresponsible behavior that led to the crisis was practiced by lenders and pension fund managers just as much as it was by traders and bank managers is of course ignored and the assumption that changing something in the lives of 1% of the population will make some huge difference is widely held.
And yes, people should be angry at some of the behaviors, like the banks extorting the right to pay bonuses in exchange for agreeing to take the government bailout money and not causing the entire population of the world to lose its savings. However, once again, when you look at the details you'll see that many of the people receiving these bonuses are about as responsible for the crisis as you are responsible for a war crime committed in Afghanistan. So choose carefully who you're angry with and again look at your own behavior.
"The TBTF banks and primary dealers like MF Global, seem to be run by gambling addicts, sociopaths, or criminally unethical people, who in order to place sure bets, fix the system by guaranteeing all risky bets with the tax payer's money."
That's a bit revisionist. They didn't really know if a bailout will come and what it would look like (see Lehman). I agree with you that some of them are criminally unethical but I don't know that the portion of them is higher than in any other business.
"And yes, the politicians are to blame for accepting the money from these interests, as they are not in any way aligned with the interests of the majority of the American people. "
That I agree with 100%. But, but, but, again the American public has been voting for decades in favor of weak government, corporate influence, weak regulation. Now they want daddy to save them but it's very questionable if daddy's coming back.
"All guilty parties are to blame, including us, for sitting idly by and allowing our country to turn into a Banana Republic."
The brand or the concept?
I don't think the process is unique to the US - we see the same level of political incompetence in Europe, Japan, the Middle East. Everyone was asleep during the decades when their local stock market was paying out those amazing returns into their pension funds.
the American public has been voting for decades in favor of weak government, corporate influence, weak regulation.
Bullshit. The American public has been voting for various demagogues, rapists, charlatans, liars, adulterers, and drunks.
This is a republic. The people don't vote on the policies.
Things can be made to work better either way.
If government was run as a public service and campaigns were publicly financed and platforms and bills were transparent, then the "republic" vision works--the representatives are trustees of the people who work for the good of the country.
OR, government can be run as a capitalist contest in which the best fund-raiser gets the office, but then the public should get direct input into the policy formulation stage of things. Basically, a national referendum system in which the people themselves wield a veto.
Either system would be several orders of magnitude better than this. We've got the "democratic" approach of letting people just buy their preferred politician, but the "republic" approach that results in legislation that is literally *designed* to be exploited by special interests.
I agree with all of that. It's still the case though that the public has been voting for the rapists and charlatans who have been supporting changes in campaign finance laws, lobbying laws, etc. that have led us to where we are.
Even now, nobody is going to vote for a candidate who will put one of the reforms you've suggested front and center in their campaign. They just want promises of free money, free healthcare, free stuff, lower taxes.
I've just come to distrust assignations of blame on some huge collective when the real problems are specific and easy to perceive.
Similarly, sure, we could blame "society" for the fact that prime-time teevee sucks, but isn't there a stronger argument that MORE blame for shitty teevee should be assigned to the people who actually produce it and pay for it?
It becomes counterproductive to trace too many dimensions of influence on the simple stuff.
Technically everything relates to everything.
I'm glad you think the real problems are specific and easy to perceive.
This means you have simple solutions that almost anyone can understand. I'd be happy to hear them (and I'm not being sarcastic here, I just find the real problems pretty complex and not so easy to perceive)
"Easy to perceive" doesn't mean "easy to fix." You can look at a scrambled egg and easily perceive what happened to it, but you can't make it unscrambled.
The politicians work for, and are largely compensated by, a class of sophist spinmeisters--the lobbyists. They work for individuals and organizations which are concerned solely with financial profit.
So rather than governing for what may bring long-term benefit to the country, they use short-term benefit to their own political capital from various constituents.
I think everyone knows this, too--the fact that we all know it and don't talk about it or make effort to change it is how you can tell we're so effectively indoctrinated. It's easy to laugh at video of crying North Koreans who are so sad at their recent loss, but we're just as "crazy."
"Even now, nobody is going to vote for a candidate who will put one of the reforms you've suggested front and center in their campaign. They just want promises of free money, free healthcare, free stuff, lower taxes. "
Agreed. But that's a problem with democracy - no candidate is going to say "Hey everyone, gather around. OK I have all these policies which are going to lead to painful changes, but they're good for us in the long run" because they know that some other candidate will offer the free money, healthcare, hopium, lower taxes; and the people will choose the latter candidate.
Even now, nobody is going to vote for a candidate who will put one of the reforms you've suggested front and center in their campaign. They just want promises of free money, free healthcare, free stuff, lower taxes.
Why are we PRETENDING that THIS time it's different, that somehow things have changed? We have the SAME system (grow-or-die), and people are, well... people!
No, the pressures have intensified because the earth can no longer guarantee returns on growth!
My "beef" with the "rich" is that they are are uber abusers of the notion that we can have infinite growth on a finite planet. It is, then, in my mind, an issue of CONSUMPTION, not "wealth" (whatever That means). I offer no solution, as I do not believe that there is anything such as a "solution" possible (given that the very word denotes permanence- this is a highly dynamic world, one that we operate within on a scale of changing time).
"That I agree with 100%. But, but, but, again the American public has been voting for decades in favor of weak government, corporate influence, weak regulation. Now they want daddy to save them but it's very questionable if daddy's coming back.
"All guilty parties are to blame, including us, for sitting idly by and allowing our country to turn into a Banana Republic."
The brand or the concept?
I don't think the process is unique to the US - we see the same level of political incompetence in Europe, Japan, the Middle East. Everyone was asleep during the decades when their local stock market was paying out those amazing returns into their pension funds. "
You've made a great point there which aligns with my thinking, i.e. in a democracy people get the leadership they deserve. People in the US, UK, here in Canada and in many countries were happy to embrace liberalization when it worked for them. No one bothered to think about the flip side or ask the deeper questions. Hey, people in the US voted in a president because he sounded like a guy you'd have a beer with. The Italians voted in Berlusconi 3 times. And then things went wrong - no surprises! Now people are angry, when they should have been asking the questions years ago.
Like I said before, I agreed with your points on personal responsibility - how many people stopped to ask whether or not they could afford that home during the housing boom? How many flipped houses like it was a national sport? Not just in the US, but in Ireland, Spain, Australia etc. How many stopped to think "Will this degree put me on a fruitful career path?"
What many of us are angry with is the lack of enforcement of regulations, outright fraud and covert corruption which allow these sociopathic jerks to get away with it. But you've got a point - we should have been more vigilant and engaged years ago.
What many of us are angry with is the lack of enforcement of regulations, outright fraud and covert corruption which allow these sociopathic jerks to get away with it. But you've got a point - we should have been more vigilant and engaged years ago.
Sigh... many complaining were recipients of the "benefits" of bubble-mania. Now that the bubble's collapsed we're looking to prosecute others.
Don't get me wrong, doing wrong SHOULD result in consequences; but, we all pretty much engaged in a WRONG system to start with. We stole from the future, we engaged in hugely unsustainable practices. And we did so as we pretended that there were no consequences. Really, when all of this was going on we couldn't have imagined that there was wrong-doing happening?
I harken back to being sucked into the dot-com bubble. I remember everyone being so giddy about their "wealth" skyrocketing with each and every surge in the stock market. It's an illusion at best.
Pump and dump. It's what the System is based on. It's what the System IS. If people now don't like it then they're going to have to face the notion of caps, of restrictions on how "individuals" can "invest." Would this be by FORCING people to hold stocks rather than flipping them? I don't know, nor do I care to prescribe "solutions" (which will only, as always, be beat by those in positions of power).
It's gotten to this ugly point because the ugliness was always there. Rich or no rich. Poor or no poor. Honesty or no honesty. Regulations or no regulations. If we don't figure out how to manage our affairs in a non-growth environment we're going to continue to see ugly (see it get uglier).
The article is a simpleminded view... the kind of intellectual lazyness that I can't stand. You are either a "rich banker" or "the 99%". What a bunch of bull. I have nothing in common with a OWS stoner and I also have nothing in common with the CEO of Home Depot. Who in america does?
The whole Us Vs Them attitude is revolting.
"OWS stoner" Sigh, spoken like a real intellectual.
If you cannot find any commonality then perhaps you're an alien?
What's revolting is that people that purport to be intelligent aren't.
Enjoy the firing squad, fucker!
I'm afraid that you are completely out of touch. Your righteous indignation is pathetic. If the people you employ are making as much money as you claim then you are obviously in the 'business' of exploitation, not the actual creation of wealth. At some point, one hopes, you will awaken to the reality that you are a parasite on, not a contributor to society. Fuck you and your taxes and charity. you self-deluded asshole.
These are the same "unprincipled men", President George Washington speaks of in his Farewell Address to the Nation, in 1796, when he warned against outsourcing the Constitutional Duties of Congress, like their duty to control money, to a private central bank, like in Washington's day, the First US Bank, the very fore runner of our Federal Reserve Bank. Washington warned that these "unprincipled men", would operate these powers of government to their own end,... and they have, via messers Dimon, Schwarzman, Paulson, Blankenfein, Buffett, Munger, et al.
Actually, these fellows and their contemporaries belong in jail. They have one and all violated the Federal criminal RICO Act, and are a slam dunk to serve time, but for the Department of Injustice, under collusion with the White House.
A billion dollars doesn't change the fact that he still has a wrinkly old dick, just the person sucking it
Crony capitalism!
/Winning!
And then there was me who is, by Obama's definition rich, yet light years apart from a guy like Schwartzman. Who said, "You OWL idiots and the propaganda press need to take your grievances up with the right people, your leaders in Washington. The rich people of this world did nothing that wasn't set up and promoted by our leaders in Washington. Our leaders in Washington are to blame for none of these bankers and investors going broke. It was our leaders who gave them a get out jail pass, not the rich. We would all be celebrating the demise of many of the wealthy people in America if our leaders in Washington would have let those banks and business that were bankrupt go bankrupt when all of this started. Blaming the rich for our current economic woes is like blaming our social programs on the poor. What do all of you rich bashers want? A communist society where everyone has nothing? A Republic, democracy and capitalism produce winners and losers. There are 45 million people on food stamps in America. I guarantee you that 60% of them are more than capable of working and the remainder truly need our help. Our leaders have created and shaped the world we live in. Not the rich."
The Republic is being ASSASSINATED! .. NDAA, SOPA, Congressional, Senate Insider Dealing|Trading, the FED.. etc, etc, etc..
Yes it's being assasinated by your elected officials. Figure it out America!
It's almost like people think the incredibly wealthy have more influence on politics than the foodstamps recipients.
But that's silly. Even a billionaire only gets one vote--why would anyone blame him?
We poor are just as important to the process. Shit, a few years back I got a BJ from Hillary when I contributed $25 to her campaign.
Taibbi eats shit.
Typical class-envy rich-are-evil bash job.
For every rich asshole out there, I'll show you fifty crack-using, car-jacking high school dropouts who wear their pants beneath their asses listening to rap music while waiting on their drug money. And each one of them has four to six kids from 15 yr old girls they knocked up in the hood. And those kids are supported by the taxpayer.
Calm down, there. Otherwise you're going to fall right in his trap.
(I didn't down-vote you, btw)
Here's an article by the Daily Bell that talks about the class-warfare meme being perpetrated by the elite. I was skeptical at first (I see these gossip stories all of the time), but after seeing this "report" by Taibbi, and how many people in this thread took it hook, line and sinker, well, I'm reconsidering.
http://thedailybell.com/3292/Paris-Hilton-Buys-a-Ferrari-Off-With-Her-Head
Methinks Taibbi has resorted to playing with peoples' emotions. Question is, why?
I was just stirring up some shit.
I am keenly aware that many, perhaps most, of the super rich achieved that status by fucking over the middle class.
There is sales tax on rock crack?
“Who gives a crap about some imbecile?”
Funny - it's the same attitude they had about thier customers.
Looks like I just spent my last dollar in Home Depot! Fuck Them! Bring back the locally owned Coast to Coast stores.
I lived in the northern VA / DC metro area 20 yrs ago, when Home Depot first opened some stores there. Their first few months in business, you'd walk into the store and be hit up by six to eight store reps within your first five minutes, all eager to help you.
Within a year they had put the local hardware stores out of business. Whenever you'd visit the HD after they had killed their competition, you'd wait at least 45 min to an hour for help, and sometimes couldn't get help if you had the front counter page someone to assist you.
Home Depot eats shit..
Billionaires: say hello to home invasions
Let's do it proper.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrRFLDyiKOQ
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?field-keywords=Art+of+the+Tactica...
Like this? :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyT8bEa4XYA
As Always, Great reporting from Matt Taibbi. You see these hypocritical dumb fucks keep forgetting that only a few years ago they were all soon to be Lehmans. Every stinking one of them would have been gone!!! If it wasn't for the inside cronies bailing them out and sticking the so called little serfs of the world with the bill, we wouldn't still be talking about these pieces of shit. But nooooo, the syndicate lives on and contnues to suck the system dry. I hope these pompous peckerheads have weapons on their yachts because as they flee to their anticipated safe zones the pirates will eat them alive.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Msnp9_C06Y&context=C3135166ADOEgsToPDskJi-zNFJn8CR_t-CFa42Uwo
There are many entrepreneurs that have worked their asses off and made something great and made loads of money and everyone is happy for them. We admire this. Americans have always supported success and have never had class envy. It's the people that cheat and steal and hurt people to get where they are that infuriate people.
These people are no better than Madoff and their ill gotten gains are not to be admired. Sorry, Mr. Diamond.
If there is one thing that makes people angry it's injustice. The whole world is angry with these douchebags and not because we're jealous.
Anyway, here is a great site that has a bunch of ways that we can get involved to make progress in the good.
http://www.fedupusa.org/
I think that we idolize ourselves too much, that we pretend that what we're doing is important.
Look around you at the class of zombies out there, the ones plugged into iCrap. Yeah, we're SO much better off that Steve Jobs exemplified entrepreneurship.
Meanwhile the raw materials that fuel all the self-idolizing entrepreneurship is being stripped from the poor schmucks who don't know enough to exploit themselves.
It's the bankers that help move the materials. They're PART of the System. Those who wish to "fix" the system are really only wanting to get their "share" of the very thing that's corrupt.
No, if people want to go forward they need to do so in a completely different mindset (not some "punish" the dungeon masters, rather than get rid of the dungeons themselves!). Look up Gary Chartier. He's close to shedding the necessary light.
And I'm so glad that everyone will be boycotting Home Depot. :-)I never go in there, but I have told everyone to avoid it like the Black Plague.
But out of Abelson’s collection of doleful woe-is-us complaints from the offended rich, the one that deserves the most attention is Schwarzman’s line about lower-income folks lacking “skin in the game.” This incredible statement gets right to the heart of why these people suck.
Ok, but is it acceptabele by Rolling Stone standards of "social justice" to feel this way if you work hard for a living, pay a lot of taxes to the Feds and aren't particularly rich?
Exactly how much stuff do you think you should get from the federal government in exchange for simply standing within US borders and maintaining body temperature?
It's funny, but when you read people's responses to posts like these, you can tell immediately whether or not they still subscribe to the Right Left fantasy world and watch the informercial media for news. The programming is evident immediately and it makes you realise why the country is so fucked up.
Call it what you want, it's all more/less intrusive government bullishit from where I'm standing.
If Steve Schwarzman throws another big party, maybe I'll be able to sell him a good or service for the event. If the Matt Taibbis of the world get the government to "do something" it's coming out of my wallet.
If there's a Left/Right misunderstanding it's that only the super rich now have the means to provide the escape velocity that keeps them above the endless taxes/regulations/fees/forms/permits/mandates and liberty sucking idiocy the megastate puts in front of us every minute of our lives.
If the government weren't so big and all-powerful, there wouldn't be all that much to buy.
@ Mercury
I hate big government, that is part of the problem. I have no problem with wealthy people. I don't think anyone should pay any more tax. The money that we are paying in taxes right now, is plenty, but it's being totally squandered.
Everyone at Occupy that wants higher taxes from 'the rich' to pay for more 'services', or whatever, won't get that. What they will get, is the government taking that money from the tax payers that have no lobbying group, giving it to the Fed, the Fed will manufacture more debt for the banks to gamble with and lend back to government to make more wars.
Same thing with the Tea Party wanting to cut the 'entitlements' in order to 'pay down the debt', well that won't happen either. What will happen, is that money will be used to create more debt.
Together the Right and the Left fleece the tax payer, taking more and giving us less.
I'm a founder and CEO and I have no problem with industry. I do have a problem, however, with Captains of Industry not taking responsibilty for their roles as citizens. We all have a responsibilty to call a wrong a wrong, to behave in an ethical manner and to encourage others to do so.
How can anyone look at what happened to 7,000+ farmers and ranchers having their property stolen and others having their gold and silver redistributed by MF Global and JP Morgan, and not say, HOLY FUCKING SHIT, that's WRONG.
If the property of these farmers and ranchers is not safe, how can any of us feel that our property is safe?
It's almost like there should be...a contract....a framework delineating the specific powers, responsibilities and limitations of government in relation to the citizens who grant the organs of state the powers of governance.....
If Occupy Whatever has a specific agenda, its news to me. They do seem to gripe quite a bit about Wall Street in particular and "corporations" in general but are seemingly unconcerned about the size, scope and expense of government. And they have, particularly in New York, made it difficult for a lot of area businesses (and their employees) to make an honest buck. So, I can't quite get my knickers in a twist like Mr. Taibbi does when some titan of industry doesn't treat them with the respect and reverence properly accorded to the salt-of-the-earth, working poor.
I wish the uber-rich were more responsible too. At least the "robber-barons" of old built libraries and cultural institutions while mostly restraining themselves from promoting world government bureaucracies and pouring money down African sinkholes.
Our property isn't safe but again it's mostly because of the ultimate vampire squid (formerly known as leviathan): the ever growing megastate.
Not sure to what exactly you're referring to RE: farmers but please link/elucidate.
I have no problem with industry.
Even IF industry is all about extraction of the future's resources today? Even IF industry is bankrolled by the banksters?
If the property of these farmers and ranchers is not safe, how can any of us feel that our property is safe?
There's no such thing as total security. And, it's my contention that people cannot have "freedom" AND "security" at the same time: how can the State be expected to protect your property AND not also be able to steal it? How was it that native American Indians lost THEIR land? "US govt" "protected" "US 'citizens'" by stealing land: and now we act surprised that this same power is used against us, and believe that it can be managed FOR us?
Listen, I understand what people have been trying to say, but, SAYING it and DOING it aren't the same thing. I never hear details of how it's supposed to work (just that it's desired).
Half his age? That would make her a haggard 35 years old! I bet her boobs look like pancakes already!
At some point the dam will burst with serious consequences. It´s just a question of a length of an historical wave. Maybe it´ll happen next year, maybe in a decade, it´s impossible to tell. But the pressure has been escalating in the last decades.
Capitalism and a market economy is a swell game on paper but then there´s the question of the playing field and the conduct of the game. Who makes the rules and who appoints the umpire? Who funds those congressmen and that figurehead in the White House? It isn´t like these people jump up on a soapbox and mesmerize the public with their eloquence. No, it takes big money and mass media publicity, both provided by Wall Street. Which BTW also mans the administration of the figurehead in the WH with people that nobody voted for. So, the political system is totally corporate owned and has been for a long time.
There is no law enforcement in the marketplace, the so called police is totally corporate owned just like the administration. Its only purpose is to create a false sense of security.
In China economic criminals are regularily being executed and Wall St. funded humanitarian societies are understandably up in arms over this. Still, how do you by now improve behavior in this thoroughly corrupt system? It isn´t easy when the mob has funded and owned both the legislature and the police for so long. As a result nothing will be done and the pressure will increase and best of luck with that.
This is but dancing around the REAL issue.
You paint a picture, but it doesn't contain the basis for existence. You mention a playing field, but there's no mention of the REAL one- where's the planet in all of this?
Capitalism would ALWAYS result in a consolidation of power and resources. After all, that's its fundamental, to grow. Not saying that there's anything else that's been presented that doesn't suffer from the same FLAW (flaw in the sense that a lack of diversity is anti-evolutionary).
Our desire to make a better looking horse at the glue factory won't solve the FUNDAMENTAL problem of being feedstock in the factory.
Matt Taibbi rocks! ;-)
~//~
The Rolling Stones : Sympathy For The Devil (live) HQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLddJ1WceHQ
Sympathy for the Devil - Rolling Stones
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ckuXx64abc
Smells Like Dead Elephants is a nice consumermas read. I´ll seed it tomorrow.
@ Smokey
You seem to have a problem with welfare recepients, so you should really have a problem with the BIGGEST WELFARE recipient of all- the INSOLVENT BANKING SECTOR that has been receiving TRILLIONS in HAND OUTS and BAIL OUTS, thanks to the tax paying public.
And if you don't think that the CEO's and executives of these in TBTF banks are on drugs, you must not have read "Confessions of a WallStreet Call Girl". Cocaine is the drug of choice for these guys, not crack, so maybe you don't have a problem with your tax money going to these pillars of society as long as it's classy.
Hey, I have no problem with partying and having a good time. Hell, I think most drugs should be legal, I just don't want my tax money to fund anyone's funky fresh lifestyle, and since your statement sounded, so very MSM, I just had to say something.
"Crack" and cocaine, basically the same. Quite appropriate that the laws should treat this drug differently based on who uses it. But, there's NO class warfare, really!
Home Depot = Do it yourself for Imbeciles.
I simply hire a carpenter.
That carpenter is still likely going to be purchasing materials from some big box store or getting products that come from far away. Although you can pick up "carpenters" around places like HD, they're NOT HD issue.
What you're talking about is knowledge. I agree that there's no substitute for good knowledge applied well. I also believe that lots of things are simple and don't require "professionals." The world of consolidation (as a product or by-product of capitalism, doesn't matter, it's the same result) gets us fewer options. I go to my local farmer's coop or hardware store and I see the same stuff I see in the big box stores. And, sometimes, the knowledge at the smaller places might not be any better than at the big stores: I've found good and bad in both; and, with the collapse in the construction industry many fairly proficient people have ended up in places like HD. What DOES matter, where you can actually have an impact, is where the "corporate" profits go.
While I've wired in a sub panel out in my pump house (where I've also worn a plumber's cap) I'm still not going to do any substantial wiring work in my home: I've got an electrician lined up for some such work. There is no one-size-fits-all solution/interpretation.
HD was borne out of the housing bubble era. It was "successful" because it could efficiently handle volume. Clearly it's good at doing what it does. Whether what it does is a good thing or not is another judgement (one that if we apply the same rules of capitalism to, should be applied equally*).
* As a farmer I can't compete on price with grocery stores. I don't have the ability to achieve economies of scale, which means that I cannot take advantage of utilizing cost-reducing streams (such as inputs as by-products from other large-scale operations). And, some might say that I don't apply my profits wisely. Judge not lest ye be judged. My bone of contention in all of this is that it's an issue of sustainability- BIG isn't sustainable, which isn't saying that SMALL is either, just that SMALL means a greater likelihood of diversity, which IS the only way forward.
Well who give's a fuck about what a Jew like Bernie Marcus has to say?
Understand it's a Jew World Order and work from there.
what's ironic is that none of these fools are listening to the prolific, but, 'subtle words', of the wise, and scholarly "Mr. Thomas Friedman" of the NY Times
shalom, tom - and a wonderful belated Hanukkah too family and loved-ones
:-))
A lot of Jews mentioned in that piece. Just sayin'.
System is broken. No way to change it now because the elite shit-bags that were quoted are part of the group that OWNS the government. Think they will vote to get all corporate money out of politics? Or limit campaign financing to small public donations, say less than $1000 each? nah. Guys like Ron Paul are no-hopers, he is getting just a taste, if he continues to rise in the polls, he will inherit a shit-storm of false accusations and will be snuffed if he is close to getting there...
We are freaking doomed... prepare
It is more like we are the 99.99% versus the richest .01%, I think this is clearly where people are getting it wrong. And yet the hubris of these people whom think they have made truly legitimate gains by their own hands are a site to behold. I think Nassim Taleb said it best in one of his books where people mistake talent for a good stroke of good luck, but in this case it is a matter of being in the right place at the right time to game the system. And yet when you have no governing principals, such as the baby boomer generation does not seem to have, this is a very likely occurence. For all the benefits and goodies they have recieved, history is likely not to look too kindly upon them since they did virtually nothing to keep the torch of liberty as we know it, burning.
I think Taleb made that point in Fooled by Randomness and reinforced it in Black Swan.
I think Nassim Taleb said it best in one of his books where people mistake talent for a good stroke of good luck,
And people also horribly underestimate the power of inheritence. I know that people here don't want to think about it, but the fact of the matter is that a LOT of existing wealth (power) has been via inheritence.
And yet when you have no governing principals, such as the baby boomer generation does not seem to have,
How about you identify for us an era that had an acceptable population?
For all the benefits and goodies they have recieved, history is likely not to look too kindly upon them since they did virtually nothing to keep the torch of liberty as we know it, burning.
The "benefits and goodies" are/were non-sustainable, PERIOD! And that "torch of liberty," is that the same torch that burned witches, natives, blacks and other lower-class in order to shine?
Dear Jamie Dimon,
Joshua M Brown
December 20th, 2011
http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2011/12/20/dear-jamie-dimon/
Dear Jamie Dimon,
I hope this note finds you well.
.......
"..So, no, we don't hate the rich. What we hate are the predators.
What we hate are the people who we view as having found their success as a consequence of the damage their activities have done to our country. What we hate are those who take and give nothing back in the form of innovation, convenience, entertainment or scientific progress. We hate those who've exploited political relationships and stupidity to rake in even more of the nation's wealth while simultaneously driving the potential for success further away from the grasp of everyone else.
Here in New York, we hated watching real estate and financial services elitists drive up the prices of everything from affordable apartments to martinis in midtown with the reckless speculation that would eventually lead to mass layoffs, rampant joblessness and the wreckage of so many retirement dreams. No one ever asked the rest of us if we minded, it just happened. I'm sure people across the country can tell similar stories.
So please, do us all a favor and come to the realization that the loathing you feel from your fellow Americans has nothing to do with your "success" or your "wealth" and it has everything to do with the fact that your wealth and success have come at a cost to the rest of us. No one wants your money or opportunities, what they want is the same chance that their parents had to attain these things for themselves. You are viewed, and rightfully so, as part of the machine that has removed this chance for many - and that is what they hate.
America hates unjustified privilege, it hates an unfair playing field and crony capitalism without the threat of bankruptcy, it hates privatized gains and socialized losses, it hates rule changes that benefit the few at the expense of the many and it hates people who have been bailed out and don't display even the slightest bit of remorse or humbleness in the presence of so much suffering in the aftermath.
Nobody hates your right to make money, Jamie. They hate how you and certain others have made it.
Don't be confused on this score for a moment longer."
Great Post - I think you have hit the nail on the head - it's not hatred of the rich - just those that profit from the machinations of scoundrels. Too bad you can't get your message out to the sheeple. It's easier for them to just go along with the class warfare theme that Obama crams down their throat.
"nation's wealth"
Does wealth belong to the "nation?"
"Here in New York, we hated watching real estate and financial services elitists drive up the prices of everything from affordable apartments to martinis in midtown with the reckless speculation that would eventually lead to mass layoffs, rampant joblessness and the wreckage of so many retirement dreams."
But... those same people "helped" create the "wealth" stream that allowed many to "pay" for those things.
As someone who "profited" off of the housing bubble I'm sure that I'm NOT loved by the person who bought from me. Hard to make a distinction between myself and Dimon in this regard. I also have stated that I did well. Isn't it, then, about scale? Wasn't it Stalin who said that the death of an individual is a tragedy and the deaths of thousands is a statistic? Where IS the line? How will people justify having lots of gold while others around them, folks who aren't Dimon-like, have none? And if those holding PMs (which I am one) who have bragged about being smart enough to do so, how will they look to those who got trampled as fodder (and who are NOT Dimon-like)?
It's all a distraction from thinking about the un-thinkable: what we're going to do about the fact that Mother Earth is no longer handing out loans for growth.
Humans are deceptive, that's NOT an abnormal thing in nature, it's a survival thing. How logical is it then to ask ourselves to not deceive ourselves about being deceptive?
http://maxkeiser.com/2011/12/22/kr226-keiser-report-capitalism-without-c...
[KR226] Keiser Report: Capitalism Without Capital?
Posted on December 22, 2011 by stacyherbert
.
these reports from the fron lines just keep getting better.
.
as you say it is all a matter of scale and perspective. where is
the line indeed? some have the bug and lose perspective of where
they are in relation to the line. they just keep going and going ....
i keep returning to the idea that the fiat money system of
eternal and infinite debt is driving us, the nations (people and
collectives as sovereigns) to malinvestment of everything.
our infrastructure is a product of our malinvestment due to
ignorance regarding pricing due to manipulation of all markets.
more an urban and transportation historical oversight / and now
problem.
we live very much in a tiered socio-economic milieu. the bankers
have perverted the system into a minefield, only they know where
the charges lie, at this point we know they are everywhere. in the
unit of account itself ! this is the fundamental power grab, the
control of the "value" of the legal tender. unforgiveable in a way.
they stand ready to fleece and butcher all the sheep, they have
the laws in place to do it ( they think ) and are just deciding
what/who they want to eat first. seniority of claims. so...
it is a question of degree it seems. moderation in all things ...
?
see these comments from link...
"
snoop diddy | December 22, 2011 at 6:21 pm |
Im gonna put this in one post, stuff on rehypo and EU, UK, US:
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2010/wp10172.pdf (page 6, 2nd paragraph)
“Rehypothecation in Continental Europe
Our understanding from legal sources is that the EU law does not establish a quantitative cap on the rehypothecation of collateral pledged to broker-dealers akin to that found in the U.S. SEC Rule 15c3–3. EU law permits the parties to strike their own bargain as to how much (if any) collateral may be subject to rights of reuse. The regulatory regime for broker-dealers and their customers may lead to some re-thinking due to the litigation involving Dexia in 2009.7 However, changes are still distant from being finalized and it is impossible to say at this stage what changes (if any) can be expected as regards limiting rehypothecation rights.”
————————————————————————————————
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldselect/ldeucom/93/93...
“12. The European Union accounts for 66% of the global interest rate derivatives
market and 60% of the global foreign exchange derivatives market.7 London
alone accounts for 39% and 44% of these respective global markets (City of
London Corporation, p 78).8 The US has 24% of the value of the global
OTC derivatives market.9 While Asia currently constitutes a relative small
part of the global OTC market, trading volumes are rising very fast. In Japan,
the largest market in the region, the interest rate swap market grew by 47%
between June 2007 and June 2009.
————————————————————————————-
Securities Market Theory: Possession, Repo and
Rehypothecation (25 pages)
http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=luque
Abstract
By introducing repo markets we understand how agents need to borrow issued securities before shorting them: (re)hypothecation is at the heart of shorting…
snoop diddy | December 22, 2011 at 6:28 pm |
now the crux of what IT is all about:
The Bankruptcy Law Changes of 2005, Rehypothecation, MF Global, and Crisis.
http://canucwhatic.blogspot.com/2011/12/bankruptcy-law-changes-of-2005.html
“Did you know that the changes made to the bankruptcy laws reordered the subordination of creditors? It’s true. Bondholders used to be the most senior of creditors in a bankruptcy. Now, derivative holders are the most senior. That means derivative counterparties gained a strong bankruptcy privilege, according to Prof. Dr. Enrico Perotti, professor of international finance at Amsterdam Business School.
The special bankruptcy treatment extended to mortgage-backed repos and derivative transactions in 2005 played a crucial role in the financial crisis of 2008. Because they were the two main sources of systemic risk in the financial crisis of 2008…”
So there we have JPMorgan sitting on all the MFglobal PMs and accounts and exactly why credit default swaps will take precedence over bondholders and why every single bailout is a waste of time as far as restoring the bond markets goes. The derivative creators can crash the system all they want and have their little banker wars and get bailed out every time there’s a bankruptcy and sit in line while they put downward pressure on bond markets (increasing yields) and watch the govt bail them out again and then they create more derivatives and never lose." .....
Did you see my business card? That's bone.
great movie!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIvd3zzu4Y
Then there’s Leon Cooperman, the former chief of Goldman Sachs’s money-management unit, who said he was urged to speak out by his fellow golfers. His message was a version of Wall Street’s increasingly popular If-you-people-want-a-job, then-you’ll-shut-the-fuck-up rhetorical line:
And if you would like to ask him face to face why he thinks a squid should get anything but shit on..
http://www.pbcgov.com/papa/aspx/web/detail_info.aspx?p_entity=00424633120007292&geonav=Y&styp=general&owner=cooperman
stop by his home and ask him.
money money money. send those rich fucks off to war.
General Smedley Butler's "solution" was best: the corporate and political leaders would earn no more than the lowest-ranking soldier for the duration of ANY war.
Jamie Dimon paid enough to the NY police for extra protection so he thinks he's set. When Madoff stole all that money nobody did a hit. surprising! If Madoff, Dimon, Corzine or anyone else had touched the mob's money they wouldn't be walking on the earth very long.
From the "more" article at Rolling Stone:
"People like Dimon, and Schwarzman, and John Paulson, and all of the rest of them who think the “imbeciles” on the streets are simply full of reasonless class anger, they don’t get it. Nobody hates them for being successful. And not that this needs repeating, but nobody even minds that they are rich.
What makes people furious is that they have stopped being citizens."
Spot on. Well said, Matt.
Agree.
It includes most politicians too. They stopped being citizens and became predators.
If sheeple wana stop supporting asshole CEOs, they'd have to stop shopping at every retail chain store, not just Home Depot.
And they'd have to stop eating at every chain restaurant.
And they'd have to stop doing business with every major bank. And most smaller banks too.
And they'd have to stop doing business with every major brokerage firm. And most smaller ones too.
Just Home Depot?
What a joke.
It’s who you know as they say…and for Home Depot founders the man they knew was highly-placed controversial Wall Street insider, Ken Langone. He was everything.
It’s called roll-up, a money-industry term of art. It means that someone, an enterprising banker backed by big money, begins to buy up mom and pop shops to turn them into one large industry, i.e, monopoly. All you need is a Ken Langone, a willing U.S. Congress and a Fed that hands out free money to its friends – and all else is toast.
Here’s how the HD setup began.
Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank were with a California home improvement chain, Handy Dan. Bernie was the President, Arthur was VP for finance. Langone made a study of the home improvement business and bought stock in Handy Dan.
Conveniently, Marcus and Blank were then “fired” from Handy Dan. Langone, who had assembled a group of investors, organized financing for Marcus and Blank, probably straight from the Fed, to found Home Depot. They launched HD in 1979 with stores in Atlanta. (Home Depot notes that Handy Dan is a "former home center retailer" that is now out of business.)
In March of 1997, HD passed the 500 store mark. Today HD operates 2248 big-box format stores across the United States with over 300,000 employees and is known as "Langone's most notable business venture.”
"Local merchants have no choice but to give way," a market analyst with Hancock Institutional Equity Services told the Christian Science Monitor.
"Regional chains and small independents are likely to feel increasing pressure to merge with rivals, or quit," said the Wall Street Journal in January, 1997.
It has been Home Depot's mission to "bury" its competition. James Inglis, former Executive Vice President for Home Depot noted that "Orchard Supply (in CA) proved to be one of the few regional chains Home Depot failed to take a real bite out of."
Dan Wewer, analyst with Robinson-Humphrey Co. in Atlanta, says it’s not unusual for nearby competition to lose 30 percent of their business initially” when HD moves in. The mom and pop stores wither, the regional chains die. Companies like Rickles, Handy Andy, Grossman's and Home Base are history.
And another one gone, and another one gone ... Another one bites the dust ? Queen
And it's not all just marketing for money. "Marcus says he has integrated Judaic principles into what he likes to call the 'Home Depot family,'" said Mother Jones on June 3, 2001. "For him, helping people understand Judaism is a matter of marketing. 'I thing a lot of it has to do with sellling,' he says. 'You've got to sell the beauties of Judaism.'"
If you want to know what those "principles" are, get yourself a copy of Marcus's and Blank's book, Built From Scratch.
Thanks, Taibbi, for another great one.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-12/jpmorgan-proves-bond-deal-death... Proves Bond Deal Death in Jefferson County No Bar to New Business
By William Selway and Martin Z. Braun - Aug 12, 2011 12:01 AM ET .
Aug. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Shapiro, chairman of Sonecon LLC, and Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, debate whether the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law is a success. U.S. Analyst Christopher Payne moderates this episode of Bloomberg Government's "BGOV Debate." (Source: Bloomberg)
.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)’s Charles LeCroy said the key to landing bond deals in Jefferson County, Alabama, was finding out whom to pay off. In one example, that meant a $2.6 million payment to Bill Blount, a local banker and longtime friend of County Commissioner Larry Langford.
“It’s a lot of money, but in the end it’s worth it on a billion-dollar deal,” LeCroy told a colleague in 2003, according to a complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
That’s because in the $2.9-trillion market for state and local government debt, where 80 percent of all financings are negotiated in private, conflicts of interest prevail. While Langford and Blount are in jail, LeCroy is fighting an SEC action. JPMorgan, which provided most of the toxic debt that devastated Jefferson County, has suffered no loss of business as the nation’s third-largest underwriter of municipal bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Just 21 months ago, JPMorgan agreed to a $722 million SEC settlement to end a case over secret payments to friends of Jefferson County commissioners. The financings arranged by JPMorgan, a package of floating-rate debt and derivatives, exposed taxpayers to the 2008 credit crisis and dealt a blow that may lead the county to approve the biggest U.S. municipal bankruptcy as soon as today.
“As an outsider looking in, it just certainly appears to me that JPMorgan ravaged this county,” said Robert Brooks, a finance professor at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and the author of a textbook on derivatives. “They convinced Jefferson County to pursue a strategy they never would have followed to generate a lot of fees.”
...
..
listen well, my droogies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCs0D6AJUuM
this article was a stupendous contribution to the analysis of the psychopathic and sociopathic plutocrats....
these arrogant men think that they have the brilliance and perspicacity to make fortunes in the billions but of a dogmatic truth i tell you that the lord god gave it to them....not because they posessed talent or ambition but solely because he willed the circumstances of their achievements....
but he gave them his indulegences as a test....as the asshole bernard marcus made all too clear, the plutocrats have failed epically of biblical proportions....
do not be jealous or envious of these fuckholes....the lord god will judge them harshly on judgment day....the first shall be last....
as much misery and mayhem as these cunts spread, it shall be charged them and the levy will exceed their net worths....there will not be enough crooked mbs, cdo, or chairsatans in the universe to bail them out on judgment day....it's all a test folks...
fear the lord and walk in his ways...sodom and gomorrah was annhilated with nuclear destruction because their people did not strengthen the hand of the poor....and so it shall be to the plutocrats of amerika....