Posted Without Comment

For me the basic dynamic of the mortgage bubble is some Ivy League dickwad hawking a billion dollars of securitized subprime mortgages to a pension fund, and then Hobie-sailing off into the sunset with a bonus after they all blow up.
-Matt Taibbi

A Brief Thought

Those who claim the stimulus package didn't work because the economy hasn't totally turned around in the last six months are like people who think global warming doesn't exist because we still have winter.

Yeah, What He Said

Because if you get into the actual gory details of what went on in those years, there’s just no way you come out of that story not wanting to see every banker on Wall Street strung up by his testicles. The crimes of this era were monstrous thieveries, committed against ordinary people in a highly systematic and organized fashion with the aid and compliance of a bought-off government, and the only way you can not perceive what happened as a profound indictment of capitalism is if you blow off the specifics entirely and try to hide the details in vague, airy words like “irresponsibility” and “excesses.”

Because the specifics matter. It’s one thing to say that Citi wasted some of the money taxpayers sent its way via the bailout; it’s another thing to say Citi wasted some of the taxpayers’ money by upholstering the pillows on the private jet Sandy Weill took to Mexico over Christmas vacation with Hermes scarves. It’s one thing to say Wall Street bankers felt pressure to chase profits; it’s another thing to say they achieved those profits by systematically robbing a whole generation of pensioners and working-class homeowners, under the noses of the politicians they bought with tens of millions in campaign contributions.

Matt Taibbi, on Fareed Zakaria, in True/Slant

i have to say, i wholeheartedly approve of the wage cap president obama is seeking to impose on executives at banks and other financial firms that receive federal aid. given that most of these guys are the ones responsible for the financial straits that not only their companies but the whole fucking economy are in, it seems that the very first belts to get tightened should be theirs.

in fact, i'll go obama one better. i think that, as a condition of receiving federal bailout money, every upper echelon executive at said firm oughtta be fired, with no severance, and that the next tier of people oughtta get moved up the ladder, with the salary cap in place. if they can pay the money back and take the company back to the private sector, where it can stand on its own two feet and compete, then let their boards pay them however much the market dictates. but the bums that got us into this situation oughtta be thrown out on their asses and left to survive on their measly hundred of millions in compensation they took before their companies went ass-up because of their mismanagement.

actions should have consequences. they done fucked up, and oughtta pay the price. it's not like they're gonna starve.


update: goddamnit.