Sun, 10/19/2008 - 5:15pm — lambert
Happy days on Wall Street! And to think I imagined there was some kind of crisis! Guardian:
Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned.
Imagine how much they would have made in a good year!
Can we afford the rich?
Why?
Say, when Obama was making his calls on behalf of the Bush + Reid + Pelosi + Paulson big bank giveaway, do you think he knew this would happen?
NOTE That's only the first $250 billion of the trillion. Via Stoller.
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I don't think he knew. But I don't think he cares, either.
"You'd better get this straight. Wise up before it's too late." -- Sister Sledge
JFK has been shot, we miss him a lot
He always knew what to do
-- Philly Cream
I like Chinese
Former Beijing mayor gets suspended death sentence
If it's good enough for the mayor of Beijing, it's good enough for Wall Street.
they make examples, but don't fix the problems--
like with all the toxic products--they'll shut down one factory but won't institute safety laws or inspect the thousands of others doing the same things.
It would be like hanging the Lehman CEO in DC, and then letting all the rest keep on doing the same things and not even looking into or legislating the rest of the industry.
It's no deterrent
I can remember officials being executed in China for similar stuff more than 10 years ago, and I know from experience that there's still no shortage of corruption (private and public).
I also not a fan of capital punishment, but it's reaching the point where in some cases (like the one you mentioned) it might brighten my day.
Just as a matter of fairness, who did more damage to the nation: Julius and Ethel Rosenburg or Lehman's CEO?
The link is wrong
Your link goes to yahoo. here is the link to the Guardian article.
Helen Keller Could Have Seen This Coming
What? Too soon?
BTW, if capital punishment in the United States make you sick, China's system will make you absolutely ill, but that's a whole other subject.
But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...
I was probably a little flippant
I don't advocate capital punishment here or in China.
What I do think worth emulating is that (when they choose to) the Chinese do treat crimes like bribe-taking and malfeasance by high-ranking officials and party members with the kind of seriousness they deserve - that is, as serious as capital crimes.
We, on the other hand, re-elect those kinds of people as President, take their accountability (say, via impeachment or retroactive immunity) off the table, or appoint them Secretary of the Treasury.
yup--but for both countries
it's all theater and appearing to punish and seeming to change things without really doing so--the Chinese pick a scapegoat and kill or jail him and don't fix the problems, and we hold "hearings" that don't result in any change, or appoint "commissions" or issue "subpoenas" that get ignored, etc.
Right On Time
As I predicted, the FBI is in the NYT pleading for more resources to take on the mortgage fraud cases (that's what these news stories really are, they aren't "news", they are agencies asking for money). I guess those 31,000 employees, including more than 12,000 agents, just are not enough to cover terrorism and bank fraud.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt