David Brooks is probably very sad.

Watch those shiny parties and bonuses dangling out there while the financial industry steals all the taxpayers resources.

and it’s closer to the strip clubs you’ll undoubtedly be going to anyway so you’ll spend less on cabs.

Heh.

The financial community 18 months after the bursting of the housing bubble, 6 months after the financial meltdown still remain so disconnected from reality that they can’t even get the atmospherics right. Given this, do any of us think they have a clue about the fundamentals?

It’s worth noting that Wells Fargo got the bailout money to buy Wachovia, not because of their financial situation. So it’s a double-whammy for taxpayers—bailout money being used to consolidate the banking industry as well as the junkets and bonuses.

Thanks Lisa.
digg

12 Nights ?!?!? jeebus, Abramoff was only good for a 5 day romp. they are meeting in Vegas only because Sodom nor Gommorrah were available -

from Lisa’s link:

“One year, the company provided fortune tellers…”

this may explain a lot

Very nicely stated. My guess would be most definitely not.

Anyone see this? Whoa…

http://www.motherjones.com/new…..erapy.html

So let’s be conspiratorial for the moment. Suppose that the financial institutions are purposefully getting the “atmospherics” wrong in order to distract voters from the real problem. That has allowed Obama to focus everyone’s attention on executive compensation, while robbing taxpayers blind, as discussed in Jane’s post. Kabuki.

The fundamentals of the economy are strong. – John McCain

But John, the economy is fucked.

By fundamentals, I meant the American workers. – McCain, senior Senator, Arizona (one of our best and brightest)

I don’t know much about economics. Did I say that? I didn’t say that. – John McCain

Yes you did John. Here’s the clip. – Russert Potato Head (Normally a dependable whore for any Republican, evidently the fix was in. Obama would, indeed toe the corporate line).

Dem whitees have failed Obama..hmmm isn’t Obama half white? The Progressive train has derailed.

I don’t think the bankers are being conspiratorial. They are just being their natural, entitled selves. But I think politicians are milking all these events for what they are worth. It is a great chance to express indignation and distract as you say. Look we kept them from spending a million dollars here and don’t pay attention to the hundreds of billions and trillions we (i.e. you ordinary Americans) are giving them or taking on in their losses.

You’re probably right. The kabuki starts with the pols.

Good observation. Remember it was not so long ago that the masters of the financial universe were deriding the blue collar workers of America to suck it up and accept less pay “for the good of the country.

Are we supposed to believe that it is merely a coincidence that we find ourselves scarcely two months down the road from the auto industry mayhem only to find the shoe of the other foot, with the rest of America pressuring the financial industry work force to accept a reduction in their pay “for the good of the country?”

I simply refuse to accept coincidences any more. The Oligarchs have conspired to reduce all of THEIR costs across the board. They have simply used their media empire to spin these stories in a way that compels the people to turn against the people, to the sole benefit of the banksters.

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/3443#Respond

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/3396

Great article. Am also reading Will Bunch’s “Tear Down This Myth” in which he writes:

“The realities of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 are these: It would reduce the marginal income rates for all Americans across the board by 25% over three years; thus the wealthiest Americans, who paid at a 70 percent rate in 1981, would see that drop to 50 percent over that period…”

Yikes. We need a bloody revolution. Now.

these are “supposed” to be good business men?

here’s business 101;

1) when asking for handouts do not lavish on ANYTHING

2) when receiving welfare DO NOT give out bonuses to ANYONE

3) when receiving charity from people who don’t have a job DO NOT HAVE A PARTY

4) when your business is going out of business unless you get help, STOP GIVING BONUSES

5) THERE ARE NO BONUSES FOR BUSINESSES GOING OUT OF BUSINESS

I am actually less bothered by the mess than by the fact that we are doing nothing to fix it.

I used to say that I liked reading about fraud and other illegal schemes in the headlines, because they always exist and when you’re reading about them, it means they’ve been uncovered. (CDSs, for example, were around for years before they hit the headlines.) That, of course, assumed that once discovered, something would be done to prosecute & correct the problem. Now I learn that just because something’s in the headlines does not mean it gets corrected.

until the bankers and the wall st wizzes realize that the current world wide credit problems are entirely their fault, they will not change. The “master of the universe” complex, the idea that they are above the law, that what happens to the “little people” means nothing in their worldview, will keep them from reality. A nice perp walk of about 5 or 6 hundred of the worst offenders might wake the others up. Otherwise, they will never change. Tone deafness will remain a big problem. Citibank to continue stadium naming deal in NYC. Didn’t they get lots of $$$$ from the US taxpayer? They will not change until forced to. Millions of $$ salary per year, yet they demanded bonuses or they will not do their jobs???? simply amazing.

Watching a nice perp walk of several hundred of the most egregious offenders is my idea of a good time. And no “prison resort” time, either. Start throwing these bastards into maximum security slams. No isolation, and no free shanks. That just might get their attention.

timr and ShotoJamf

And who, in your opinions, would enforce the law and force the perp walk? Obama’s economics team, who are beholden to citi, Goldman Sachs, etc.?

Holder has already said that he will not conduct any “witch hunts” (his words) into Wall Street practices.

The problems are intentionally to big to fix, by design. While it seems completely implausible to think that there could be a group of individuals who literally run the world and wanted to implode the global economic system, that is the ONLY explanation. What else could possibly explain the use of Bloomberg Terminals for the sole purpose of leveraging up $400 trillion in derivatives. I’ve been blogging about this exact thing for five years. There’s nothing new or surprising in any of this. They literally leveraged debt on debt on debt into the stratosphere, with virtually no way on earth to settle all of the claims. People placed thousand of bets against the system, knowing that their own bets would be the cause of its failure…and they would become the creditors whom we all supposedly owe.

Phil Graham enabled all of it when he removed the controls that had been in place to prevent it. He did it at the end of the Clinton Administration, at a time when Clinton was clearly being blackmailed to pardon Mark Rich, and allow this debacle to take root.

Clinton didn’t need to be blackmailed; he was intimately part of the scheme, with Rubin & Summers as TreasSecs, pushing for dismantling Glass-Steagal.

A 12 night party? Even in college I never partied 12 nights straight.
Do they get blood transfusions as they sleep to avoid hangovers?

The conference is a Wells Fargo tradition. Previous all-expense-paid trips have included helicopter rides, wine tasting, horseback riding in Puerto Rico and a private Jimmy Buffett concert in the Bahamas

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/…..40269.html

Party in Vegas, Horseback ridding in Puerto Rico,a Private Jimmy Buffet Concert in the Bahamas?
And the GOP the probusiness party wants to lecture me about my morals?
If the party was still going on I would want these guys drug tested!
Regular drug tests for WallStreeters sounds like a good idea.
Why because they lost us Trillions! Why because their explanations of the economics involved sounds like stuff people make up when they are stoned. Also 12 days of parties? I’m thinking they are using a little lot of illegal pick me ups.

Point taken, but the Rich pardon was certainly the result of pressures brought to bare by those who set him up with his little intern, “The Swallow, and had wiretapped his every conversation.”

ALSO, CAP THE BANK’S CREDIT CARD RATES…!!!

I’m not suggesting it might actually happen. I don’t expect that. I was just tilting at windmills. You have to admit, it would be entertaining.

It has aways been thus: Recreational drugs and sex orgies are de rigueur for society’s power brokers and well-connected underlings. Rubes believe (and further disseminate) the false piety promulgated by tv news, talk shows and religion.

Consider the recent case of the Federal Mining and Minerals agents. Prostitutes, cocaine and liquor were provided to the Bushco Federal workers in exchange for access to governement land.

That’s an underreported Holy Mackerel story.

I agree, there are people paying 29% APR on credit card, others paying 25%, etc. Twenty-five years ago interest rates on credit cards was tax deductible–that almost makes those rates bearable, but then the govt realized they were losing money…

You know, it’s not just the extravagance that gets me, but the setting. Other companies also seem to think Las Vegas is a great place to have conferences to butter up developers, for instance. Microsoft held a bunch of its Vista pre-release events there. Maybe some men were uncomfortable about it. As a woman, it just seemed tawdry and obvious. Let me tell you, walking down a gauntlet of illegal immigrants flapping stripper cub flyers is not something that puts me in a great mood. But if you want corporate advancement, you have to play the game. I’d be more okay with a junket for top performers if it were not in Las Vegas. And if all corporations scale back on junkets, then the tourism businesses, and hotels and hotel staff will be affected.

Maybe we could put free travel vouchers in the stimulus bill so everyone can go somewhere else for a week and stimulate an area’s economy…