As long as Obama, Geithner, Summers, and Bernanke hang in there together, any attempt to ratchet down on the Barons of Wall Street will amount to nothing more than hot air for the press and bovine scatology for the rest of us. Transparency is, at best, only illusory.

Save America; shut down the investment banks! They make nothing you can buy in a store or provide any service aside from creating arcane investment products that are simply bets on how the market is going to go--whether, for example, the price of oil will go up on down, --a series of bets that earned a Citibank banker 100 million last year!

As a rule, these investment bankers create too-good-to-be-true investment packages that always end up as a bubble and implode! Addicted gambling casino gurus and their Nobel prize mathematical wizard friends are having a high time figuring out how to defraud the rest of us. And the sad part is that they usually succeed. Even sadder, with our industrial base now gone, these fraudsters are the only economic game in town.

Economic game indeed! Its called the Wall st. version of Monopoly where all the squares are Wall st. and all get to pass go with every roll and they even have a sq. which says pass losses onto the Sucks AKA taxpayers. The game board is made of solid Gold and the pieces are all carved from the bleached bones of the millions they've ruined and killed. The money used is real and supplied by the Fed. Don't bother to even try and play unless you are lucky enough to work for a select few To Big to Fail Corps. Oh and here's the best part nobody who gets to play ever loses.

Read the Kunstler blog.

and then these asswipes claim they have to make these payouts in order to retain the best people. First of all, these are the crooks responsible for running the economy into the ground in the first place--They're lucky they aren't begging for spare change and pounding the sidewalks looking for a job and even luckier they aren't behind bars. But since when are the "best" the ones for sale to the highest bidder? Not exactly what I would prioritize as the "best" choice unless what you are rewarding is someone willing to do anything for money and maintain the illusions while the class they serve drain the treasury. And while Obama tells us we can't afford as good healthcare as say, Canada or France--or even Cuba--and that we have to address "entitlements"--code for Social security and Medicare, he pours our funds for the common good into their endless pockets. He is paid for serving them too.

The continuing drip, drip, drip of revelations of this deal threatens Geithner’s tenure as the Treasury Secretary.

So far, I haven't heard Daddy Long Legs say a thing about making that curly-headed rat bastard walk the plank. Geithner isn't going anywhere. And if he is forced out, Gordon Gekko will be the next Treasury Secretary. There is a long, long list of crooked scum waiting to replace him.

I'm confused. Aren't the people getting those juicy bonuses (not counting stock options please note) the very same people that bought into the derivatives scam in the first place? So why are they getting bonuses in the first place?

For coming up with the 'greenwashing' coverup? Then maybe they DID earn their bonuses after all. Yes?

Bah.

Gary

The French had the right idea in 1789.
It's long overdue, time to build the guillotines and storm the Bastille.

Pundits often have the bad habit of making much of a small building on fire while a huge complex of much more salient issues behind them are aflame. This saddening article is another example.

The compensations to bankers are vile but even if they were not given the current unemployment rate would remain roughly the same. In other words these compensations do not "kill" many jobs. That is the small building afire.

Yes, bankers are a serious problem but so are we citizens of a nation who demand cheap goods and services which have been, are, and will be produced in nations where lower living standards, semi-slave labor, and low wages make our gluttony possible. That, folks, is the huge burning complex.

If current policies continue the outcome of this will be either low living standards, semi-slave labor for low wages in our country or revolutions in the nations to which we have outsorced or jobs with steeply rising costs of goods and services for us and perpetual war.

There is only one rational and sane alternative which is a return to what was once called solidarity with wage labor in all countries of the world and a joint fight against their slave-labor conditions and low wages. That is the only strategy which will staunch and perhaps even reverse the job-flight from our country.

The ever higher gold-bricking of Wall Street is burying US, your countrymen! Mr. Obama, Tear. Down. This. WALL!! Or must We, the People repair to the Barackades?!!

Amerika's Elected Misrepresentatives universally admire, praise, and extol the "Work Ethic": we "all" must strive to keep our shoulder to the wheel and our nose to the grindstone, and do a fair day's work for (ideally) a fair day's pay!

And yet these same Elected Misrepresentatives generally equally admire, if not so readily or openly praise, Amerikan banksters and tycoons-- who are neither more nor less than "goldbrickers" in every sense of the term.

Ironic, hypocritical, and paradoxical too.

· Yr Obd't Servant

where is the Glass Stegall Act! Banksta gangsta have OBMA in their pocket!

A transaction tax? Why, that would be "anti-competitive" and result in "job losses" and would be "heavy-handed, command and control Federal meddling", which would distort the otherwise "free hand of the market". Even if it was only 0.1% of each transaction, which would raise literally billions to help yank the country out of the economic and environmental garbage bin...

No, we just cannot speak of it. It's a "non-starter". Like single payer, like binding action on climate change, like peace, like justice, like freedom...all "non-starters".

Yes, from the Carnegie libraries to the Rockefeller ccontributions to national parks, this kind of crap always goes on and on. Don't think that Gates and Buffett aren't doing this too because they are. They obtain money through unscrupulous practices that ruin families, cause suicides and poverty as well as undermining the social principles of integrity and decency thereby fostering a more barbaric society with increased insecurity, crime, ruthlessness and general breakdown. Then they use a pittance of their stolen profits to aggrandize themselves.

Listen to this from "The Daily Reckoning" folks about recent history:

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on July 16, 2008, that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are "adequately capitalized" and "in no danger of failing." Then-Secretary Treasurer Henry Paulson declared on August 10, 2008, "We have no plans to insert money into either of those two institutions."

- Both Fannie and Freddie were nationalized 28 days later, on September 8, 2008.

Ben Bernanke claimed on February 28, 2008, "Among the largest banks, the capital ratios remain good and I don't expect any serious problems of that sort among the large, internationally active banks..." Henry Paulson added on July 20, 2008, that "It's a safe banking system, a sound banking system. Our regulators are on top of it. This is a very manageable situation."

- Since the recession started in December, 2008, 144 banks have failed.

Paulson informed us on April 20, 2007, that "All the signs I look at show the housing market is at or near the bottom."

- The number of foreclosures skyrocketed shortly thereafter and will now any day surpass those during the Great Depression.

Ben Bernanke announced on June 20, 2007, that "[The sub prime fallout] will not affect the economy overall."

- Less than one year later, the stock market crashed, losing 53% of its value, and is still down 25% despite one of the biggest bounces in history.

Those in charge of our country's finances not only failed to see the crises developing and then bungled the handling of the recovery, they've deliberately misled us about what they're doing to our currency. In spite of emphatic promises, flowery speeches, pat-on-the- back assurances, and continual reassurances, here's what they've actually done to the dollar:

Since September 1, 2008, the monetary base has ballooned from $908 billion to $2.0 trillion. The current monetary base is now equal to bailing out General Motors 23 times.
Bailout funds in 2008 and 2009 total $8.1 trillion. That's almost 78 WorldComs. It's over 123 Enrons.
US debt has risen sharply, from $6.2 trillion in 2002 to $12.1 trillion today. That's over $39,000 per citizen.
David Walker, the comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office from 1998-2008, warned that the US is on the hook for $60 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Independent analysts peg the figure at near twice that. Whatever the number, it is incomprehensibly large. The only way we will meet these liabilities is to print the money and inflate them away.
We're bailing out corporations that should fail, making financial promises we can't keep, and adding layers of debt we can't possibly repay. And the real killer is, if we don't have the cash, we just print it. It is, by any reasonable account, the "blunder that will plunder" the next several generations. It is changing America permanently, and the problems will persist long after you and I are laid to rest.

Bottom line: after all the bailout programs, housing initiatives, rescue efforts, stimulus schemes, bank takeovers, wars, unemployment benefit extensions, and numerous other promises, the biggest financial deception of the decade is what the US government is doing to the dollar. Nothing else even comes close.

This reckless activity has spooked our foreign creditors, weakened our global standing, diluted our currency, is punishing savers and retirees, and ultimately sets us up for a level of inflation this country has never seen before.

Yet, what is the guardian of our economy and money telling us now?

"Will the Federal Reserve's actions to combat the crisis lead to higher inflation down the road? The answer is no; the Federal Reserve is committed to keeping inflation low and will be able to do so. In the near term, elevated unemployment and stable inflation expectations should keep inflation subdued, and indeed, inflation could move lower from here." (Ben Bernanke, December 7, 2009).

This is pure rubbish. If inflation could be controlled by just thinking stable inflation thoughts, then Ben should be able to grow a full head of hair by just thinking scalp follicle thoughts. This is so ridiculous, it's insulting.

Government actions make a mockery of their words; what they say and what they do are diametrically opposed. It's clear that inflation is not a question of "if," but "when."

Any level-headed individual has to conclude that there will be a steady - and likely accelerating - decline in the dollar's purchasing power. It's inevitable.

The great masses don't quite understand it yet, but they will. There will be no escape from the cold, hard slap in the face citizens will receive when a high level of inflation arrives. And when it does, it will make a mockery of any opposing viewpoint.

So the question before you is simple: Will you be a prepared survivor for what lies ahead, despite what our government leaders tell us, or will you be a complacent victim of the biggest financial deception of the decade?

For me, there's only one solution. Don't kid yourself into thinking a man-made asset will protect your purchasing power. This is the time to be overweight gold and silver. I advise letting them serve their purpose for you.

Regards,

Jeff Clark
for The Daily Reckoning

From the Daily Reckoning:

And now over to Bill Bonner, who has today's reckoning from Bethesda, Maryland...

Poor Obama. The man is in way over his head. And what can he do? Few people understand what is going on in the economy...and none of them work for the Obama administration, as near as we can tell. The only one who seemed to be on the ball was his advisor, Paul Volcker. But Volcker got edged out by Larry Summers, a man with a long history of bad ideas on economic matters.

Summers is a stalwart member of that very special club - modern economists. Never has an unarmed professional group done more damage to a society than Summers and his colleagues.

"We cannot and will not accept any speed limit on American growth," said Summers in a 1995 speech, rejecting the idea of higher interest rates to cool speculation. By 2000, the economy with no speed limit had smashed into an abutment. But Summers never figured out what the problem was. He was too busy wrecking a great university. He went on to apply the same 'no speed limit' philosophy to Harvard, where his building program was so costly the university years will probably never recover from it.

Ben Bernanke gives no hint that he has any idea of what is going on either. He maintains that modern central banking can't see when economies are getting into trouble. But when they do...he knows just what to do to fix it.

What kind of strange GPS system is this, dear reader? It failed to tell us where we were before we ran off the cliff... But now, we're going to use it to find our way home. Good luck!

But who worries now? We're rolling along...convinced that trouble is behind us. Recovery is on the way; that's what the signs say.

But wait...

Joblessness at a 26-year high, and rising....

Consumer credit just took the biggest monthly drop ever...it's fallen 10 months in a row.

Nearly half of Florida's mortgages are underwater...

Hey...what a recovery!

But the stock market doesn't seem to care. Or notice.

The Dow rose 45 points yesterday. Investors seem to think that businesses are going to make a lot of money in the years ahead. How? How much stuff can you sell to unemployed people? But why else would investors pay 100 times earnings for a share?

The current price/earnings ratio is a subject of much discussion. Earnings collapsed in the depression. Prices did not. So if you look just at current earnings you come to a P/E ratio in the 100+ range. That means investors pay $100 for every dollar's worth of earnings. If they intend to earn their money back - and nothing changes - they'll wait a century to break even.

But earnings are expected to go up. So Robert Shiller used a 10-year moving average to compute earnings...smoothing them out to a "normal" level. Still, he says, the S&P 500 is overvalued by about 27%.

The point is, stocks are expensive. So, you have to wonder: what is going on? Are stock market investors really such optimists?

Or, is the federal government manipulating stock prices? It is spending trillions of dollars to give people the impression that things are getting back to normal. Why not spend a few billion more to manipulate stock prices?

We don't know. The feds have shown themselves willing to do any fool thing...but rigging the stock market? Who knows?

We've got to reckon with what we've got. And what we've got is a stock market that is either manipulated...or delusional.

Stocks could only be worth current prices if this were a normal recession. But if this were a normal recession, it would be over by now. Stocks would be moving up in anticipation of the next boom phase. But this is not a normal recession. And it hasn't come to an end. New jobs aren't being created. Consumer credit is not expanding. And the only prices that are going up are the prices subject to speculation.

The real reason stocks are so expensive (assuming the market isn't rigged) is that this is the beginning of a depression, not the end of one. At the beginning, people don't quite believe it.

"We're climbing out of a nasty recession," said a financial expert interviewed on the radio this morning. "And we're all happy to put this thing behind us as soon as possible."

Stocks are high because people think they can 'put this thing behind them.' They can't imagine that the depression will last for 5...10...maybe 15 more years. Nor do they realize that the US economy is permanently impaired...that the companies traded on Wall Street will have a very hard time earning profits in the years ahead...nor that the average American family may have reached the height of its wealth in 1973!

The disappointment will come...then the disillusionment...then the disgust...then the despair. It will be like walking down a staircase...each step heavier...deeper...and more depressing the last. And with each step, stocks will fall. Investors will begin to see things in a new way. And at the bottom, a whole new outlook will be common:

"America is finished as an economic power," people will say. "Incomes are going down - forever; we can't compete with the Chinese. Stocks were dreadfully overpriced; now they are cheap...but who would want to buy them?"

It may not happen like that. But somehow, some day...stocks will once again trade at low P/E ratios... Below 10...maybe down to 5. Then, they will be bargains.

How will you know when it is time to buy again? When you no longer want to.

One option:

Swiss mega fines replace jail time for offenses like speeding with fines based on income.

What might be the biggest speeding ticket of all time has just gone to a tycoon caught racing through a small Swiss village — in a red Ferrari Testarossa — at 35 mph over the speed limit. The fine totaled $290,000, over double the previous Swiss record. Swiss courts have been meting out mega fines ever since Swiss voters opted in 2002 to replace jail time for offenses like speeding with fines based on income. The deep pocket in the Testarossa, the BBC reports, owns four other luxury cars besides his Ferrari.

http://toomuchonline.org/

sierra7
For all alcoholics, (read financial houses, banks etc) the need for "enablers" is paramount.
We, the PEOPLE are the enablers for the financial system that has only ONE purpose, to rape, pillage and exploit for profit.
That is history.
If anything "good" comes out it is accidental or because it is formed by someone or group who has not profit motive whatsoever...
Wall St. is making money of "trades" not investing in new products or jobs.....that's where they're making their money....trading between themselves, acting somewhat like large "bucket" shops that existed in the late 1800's and early 1900's.....
They are getting their money from us, and the FED printing presses for almost zero interest, turning that money around and either buying treasuries yielding 4-5% and laughing all the way to their bailed out banks.
Be wary of 2010-11 especially; a thunderstorm of Option ARMS loans are gearing up to be dumped by homeowners.....it will make the sub-prime mess seem like a picnic...and so many of these homeowners will be ones that are "prime" rated and have either lost their jobs or are going to loose them, or in the clutch have had their salaries slashed.
America has been changing economically for more than 30 years; accelerated on steroids by the Reagan Admin....where politics and financial transactions turned positively bitter and terrible.....
As I stated above; we are the enablers.
Stop consuming; only for food and water and heat....and if possible shelter.......don't buy anything.....NOTHING!!
"Wealth destruction" is the end result of all stupefying economic disasters; this one will be truly stupefying!
The criminals who brought on this disaster thru outright greed are still in charge of the "recovery" which is virtually nonexistent.

Again, remember: In this system WE ARE THE ENABLERS!!!!

Requiring them to give to charity? Do you know what these "charities" are? One of my clients, an investment banker himself (name protected lest I run afoul of my professional duty) once gave hundreds of thousands to an organization that sent college (mostly wealthy) kids to Israel for a free boondoggle in the name of building Zionist minds.

Yes, it was a 501(c)(3) organization - a charity. Yes, that was deductible at the taxpayers' expense.

Yes, that's what these "charities" will be.

OT, but:

Tell the FCC to Stand Up for Net Neutrality! – deadline this Thursday..
http://www.savetheinternet.com/fcc-comments

Some of you may have missed this one.

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2010/01/07-0

It'll make your head explode. I found the original doing a search on "14000 tax cheaters". Ever since I heard about this story, I've been googling this every so often. The story mostly fell off the face of the Earth for obvious reasons.

One can be sure that the insiders in these institutions are howling with laughter at their audacious maneuver which has now proven successful. A thousand years ago it would have taken effort to ride across the plains on horseback and pillage the countryside town by town; now they just talk to the right people in the nation's capital, then sit back and strip assets by remote control.

For such sociopaths, the greater good has never been an obligation. These bastards have never been motivated to contribute to their culture unless there's something in it for them. The fact that their rapaciousness is now becoming more noticeable is astonishing. They feel comfortable that they will be able to accumulate as much wealth as possible with next to no interference from citizens.

Mafia organizations deserve slightly more accolades than these bankers in one respect: at least they know they have to keep to the margins and remain inconspicuous in the mainstream. Being truly insular, they understand that excessive greed will be their downfall, and they know enough to back off in their criminal acts most of the time. Goldman Sachs on the other hand is operating confidently under the assumption that they can flout the laws of the land with impunity.

Don't wait for the authorities to do anything about it... fight for your survival and whack a banker today!

"As Goldman gets ready to announce bonuses, anticipated to be worth around $595,000 per employee, the press team at Goldman Sachs has been working overtime to come up with clever ideas on how to defray public anger at firm. Remember when they announced their plan to mentor and loan to small businesses? Now they are thinking of creating a rule that would require all their top employees to engage in charitable giving."

--------------

Do you really wanna bet that they're working overtime? After all, it's not as if they give a crap about public opinion.

As to the "charitable giving" yeah, how very mighty and generous. No doubt the "giving" is tax deductible for the robber barons.