AIG Bonus Issue Is Just A Red Herring

So how does one run across the backs of alligators without getting eaten? First chum the waters with some red meat and while the critters are munching on the screaming bait you hot-foot across their backs.

Now use "AIG bonus issue" for the screaming red meat and use the snarling congressional panel for the alligators and the hot-footed one will be Goldman Sachs a.k.a. Government Sachs who will escape the glare and jaws of government, public and the news media.

Cui bono? Who profited from the enabling Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000? Goldman Sachs et all were the ones who introduced these financial derivatives products from hell that took down brokers, bankers and now threatens the world financial system. The products by law couldn't be regulated or have oversight by any agency including state gaming commissions! They planned well. The bonus babies at AIG are mere fodder at $160 million. AIG alone cost the taxpayers $180 billion for being Goldman Sachs' favorite customer who would say "yes" to any product that Goldman proposed.

But Goldman needed help from the federal government to get the Modernization Act of 2000 into law. For that job they recruited former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana and others. So government was equally criminally irresponsible for passing this law. That's why the bonus babies at AIG are being scapegoated.

Confessions Of Citigroup's Robert Rubin

This past Saturdays edition of The Wall Street Journal had an interview with Citigroup's Senior Advisor and Board member Robert Rubin. I obtained an unredacted copy of the interview from a non-Jewish staff member.

WSJ: Good morning Mr.Rubin.

Rubin: My coffee and bagel are cold. Can you freshen them up?

WSJ: Certainly. Can I call you Bob?

Rubin: For now.

WSJ: Since 1999, when you were brought on board at Citigroup by former CEO Sandy Weill, you have pocketed over $200 million in salaries and stock options. During that same time Citigroup's stock has lost over 90% of its value and now teeters on bankruptcy.

Rubin: So?

WSJ: Don't you feel any guilt? Weren't you overpaid when all things are considered?

Rubin: Hey, nobody saw this problem coming.

WSJ: Exactly. That's my point. You got over $200 million in compensation but still classify yourself with all the other "nobodys"that didn't see the financial meltdown coming. So where's the value-added from you ?

Rubin: Are you anti-semitic?

WSJ: No. Actually I'm a Jew but not a filthy Jew.

Rubin: What do you mean by that?

WSJ: Isn't it true that Sandy Weill enlisted your help to drive out of office his non-Jewish, co-Chair and 16 year veteran John Reed in 2000?

Rubin: Reed had thin skin. He had a thing about morals and cleanliness. He was a pushover.

WSJ: How did you help Weill get rid of this responsible man?

Rubin: Well off the record. When morals get in the way of money-making, morals go bye-bye. Anyway back to your question, during the week I would have a butt outside and wait for Reed's limo to pull up. Then I would call Sandy on the cell for the tricks da jour.

WSJ: And?

Rubin: Sometimes Weill would rush to Reeds privy and make a mess and not clean up. Or many times he would replace Reeds wife picture with Sandy's own wifes picture. She looks like Sandy in drag. She makes Greenspan's wife Andrea "Shrink Wrap" Mitchell look like Greta by comparison.

WSJ: Anything else?

Rubin: Yea , I think the last straw was when Reed got a solicitation for a discounted Jewish High- Holidays dog circumcision that was refered to him by Sandy himself . Hey where's my coffee and bagel?

WSJ: Hey Bob, go fuck yourself.

Halliburton & Citigroup: Poor Results For Their Greedy CEOs

Halliburton and Citigroup are stocks that symbolize the criminal greed of the past 8 years. Halliburton represents war for profits. Dick Cheney was its CEO before he was sworn in as Veep in 2001. Using his position of power and the life-long relationship he had with Secretary Of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Halliburton was awarded no-bid contracts in Afghanistan and in Iraq. I think the war in Iraq was largely for Halliburtons benefit along with other war for profit companies.

How did the stock do in these past 8 years ? Well Halliburton was trading at $19.00 when Cheney was sworn in and now the stock trades at $16.00. So after 4200 American lives, app. 1,500,000 Iraqi lives, 2,500,000 displaced Iraqis and app. $750,000,000,000 and counting in war expenditures and 2 or 3 adjustments to asshole Cheney's heart regulator the stock is down app. 16%. How stupid can some monkeys be?

And then there's Citigroup. Under the direction of former CEO Sanford Weill who took the reins in 1998 when the stock was trading at $25.00 Weill used his connections and money to repeal the Depression- era Glass-Steagall Act which mandated a seperation of stock brokers and insurance companies with banks. The Wall Street meltdown is directly traced to the repeal of this Depression-era firewall banking act. Citigroup's stock was trding at $25.00 when Weill slid in to power. Now Citigroup trdes at $ 8.50. That's almost 60% less in value.

A quiet retirement for these 2 assholes is not what they deserve.

How About a Slow And Local Nation?

Because it's the fate of the frivolous primate to relive unheeded history, how soon will the U.S. and the world reaquaint itself with the depths of another depression?

After the 1929 Crash and the subsequent 20% unemployment , the 1930 Smoot- Hawley Tariff Act was passed to create and save jobs for unemployed Americans. The Act raised tariffs on 20,000 imported goods. Business was against the legislation and over 1000 economists signed a petition urging President Herbert Hoover not to sign it. But he did and trade between the U.S. and others plunged 50% between 1930 and 1932 because other countries retaliated.

The prospects of a President Barack Obama pushing protectionism legislation through a rabid democratic Congress is certainly not farfetched. There are all kinds of policies that can kill jobs and exacerbate a financial downturn. Tax code and environmental policies attached to trade agreements can have the same effect as tariff increases. Of course a reduction in worldwide business activity would bring some benefits. The environment would have less destructive pressure put upon it. Also we here in America would have less melamine-laced pet and human food imported from the filthy Chinese.

A slow and local nation approach would bring relief from the dollar chase of of other peoples values.

Wall Street Debacle: A Madame Defarge Moment

Madame Defarge smugly knitted while the guillotine decapitated the French aristocracy in Dicken's " A Tale of Two Cities". Likewise some of us indulge in schadenfreude as the " masters of the universe" on Wall Street are dying from a thousand financial cuts from the falling Dow Jones Averages. The peers of Wall Street like the nobility of France are and were the bigger losers.

Mayor Bloomberg Wants More

One can take the kike out of his or her greedy culture in eastern Europe but one can't take the greedy culture out of the kike.

And so Mayor Bloomberg of New York City wants to roll back term limits in the City and spend a $100 million on another run for office. It's kind o' like he is reaching back for that expansive experience he felt at his bar mitzvah. Then he was told that he was a "son of divine law" and "chosen"for great things. Hey if laws have to be broken or ignored, Mike was on a "mission from god".

Mike needs peace more than another term as mayor. He should convert to another religion.

The Next Financial Shoe To Drop

Here's a quick tutorial on the root cause of the 1930's Great Depression since it increasingly looks like we will replay that whole episode in slow-motion. Sure the market crashed but the reason for the depression was the failure of the banks. The banks failed because they speculated in the stock market. E.G. Morgan Bank owned Morgan Stanley brokerage .Those speculations went south and people ran on the banks to withdraw deposits. The rest is history.

After the Crash and bank failures, legislation was passed that included the Bank Act of 1935 a.k.a. Glass Steagall. It prohibited banks from ever owning brokers or insurance companies. In 1999 , Glass Steagall was struck down. Banks then did the obvious and bought insurance companies and stock brokers. Also brokers bought insurance companies and banks.

" What could possibly go wrong?". Well first there was the failure of Bear Stearns which was bought by JP Morgan Chase and today Lehman Brothers went Chapter 11 and Bank Of America bought Merrill Lynch. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are in the wings looking for deep pocket partners i.e. some bank with fat deposits of unsuspecting civilians.

So we have gone full circle with banks now back in the brokerage business in spades. The next time the brokers fail they will take their respective bank owners with them. What's a civilian to do among these financial terrorists? First avoid any bank with a brokerage or insurance subsidiary. Limit all deposits to FDIC limits. Keep some cash at home and a weapon for protection.

Our society has resorted to money as the cure all and to that end we have printed literally bales of it. But like a house of cards, paper can't take much weight.