What happened to all of the doom and gloom economic threads?

[Ulaven_Demorte]

Isn't it nice that ten executives at Fannie Mae received almost 13 million in bonuses?

That's all? Those bonuses were paid for reaching performance goals. You know, doing their jobs. You neglect to mention that those bonus figures are 40% lower than before the economic crisis.

Now compare those to the compensation packages paid out to other banking executives for failing to do thier jobs..

In 2007, the year before Lehman Brother's collapsed, the CEO Richard Fuld was paid $22,030,534, which included a base salary of $750,000, a cash bonus of $4,250,000, and stock grants of $16,877,365.

or more recently..

October 21, 2011 2:49 PM EDT

Goldman Sachs has set aside $10 billion for compensation and bonuses this year, it announced on Oct. 19 -- the same day it reported a third-quarter loss of $428 million.

The $10 billion figure is 24 percent less than the bonus pool at this time last year, but if the bonus pool actually fluctuated based on the company's profits, it would have decreased by 70 percent, because that's how much Goldman Sachs's profits have declined since 2010.

The company's stock, meanwhile, has fallen by 43 percent since the beginning of 2011, and 1,300 employees were laid off in the third quarter alone, with 1,000 more layoffs expected by the end of the year. It doesn't seem unreasonable to say that if executive bonuses were lower, some of those layoffs could have been avoided.

 

[koalabear]

Updated: 11/01/2011 09:38 ET
DOW 11,698.15 -256.86
NASDAQ 2,617.76 -66.65
S&P 1,221.16 -32.14

 

[koalabear]

Another one qualified to be on the Oblamer Staff.

Hundreds of millions missing from Corzine-run brokerage firm

Corzine, 64, who once ran Goldman Sachs before becoming a U.S. senator and then governor of New Jersey, had been trying to turn the more than 200-year-old MF Global into a mini Goldman by taking on more risky trades.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45114515/ns/business-us_business/#.Tq_4V3EehIs

 

[koalabear]

Updated: 11/01/2011 12:03 ET
DOW 11,641.46 -313.55
NASDAQ 2,603.04 -81.37
S&P 1,216.61 -36.69

 

[unregistered]

 

[mercury14]

Hasn't Merc checked in to tell us all this is meaningless?

The market news is that the Greek turmoil today has to do with the fact that their prime minister put the bailout up for a popular vote.

Why... would he do that?

 

[unregistered]

 

[unregistered]

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Got me loling here at the picture of you sticking pins in a waxen image of the Dow, cackling with glee as you await the big crash that will finally usher in the era of austrian economics.

More fun than a barrel o'monkeys...

Maybe today will be the magic day...

I saw some other downward indicators yesterday.

Then there's the huge Obama bonuses over at Freddie and Fannie...

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

The market news is that the Greek turmoil today has to do with the fact that their prime minister put the bailout up for a popular vote.

Why... would he do that?

Because he knows he's out if the plan is adopted and he needs cover to willingly crash Europe's economy and save his position and party.

That's a no-brainer; once the Left, Socialism, crushes all morals then it is every man for himself and no one, but no one is going to surrender their bennies. Greece has been told that they are too big to fail, and there, as here, the Benefit class thinks that government is an unlimited source of resource.

If you tell them that the government is broke, all they hear is "the wealthy are greedy hoarders not paying their fair share," and they have that faux nobility of SOcialist economic doctrine that says their demand is what drives an economy and if you just give them more money, then they will create jobs, therefore, taking all that Capital away from the very richest among them (and when you run out of rich, then you look at Germany) then, like an Obama stimulus, an economic miracle will be created, power to the people, power to the people right on...

If they get out of the EU and back to the drachma, they can open up the power of the printing press.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Hundreds of millions missing from Corzine-run brokerage firm

Corzine, 64, who once ran Goldman Sachs before becoming a U.S. senator and then governor of New Jersey, had been trying to turn the more than 200-year-old MF Global into a mini Goldman by taking on more risky trades.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45114515/ns/business-us_business/#.Tq_4V3EehIs

But, this is not a Democrat "scandal," so the record is intact at 44-6...

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

That's all? Those bonuses were paid for reaching performance goals. You know, doing their jobs. You neglect to mention that those bonus figures are 40% lower than before the economic crisis.

Now compare those to the compensation packages paid out to other banking executives for failing to do thier jobs..

In 2007, the year before Lehman Brother's collapsed, the CEO Richard Fuld was paid $22,030,534, which included a base salary of $750,000, a cash bonus of $4,250,000, and stock grants of $16,877,365.

or more recently..

October 21, 2011 2:49 PM EDT

Goldman Sachs has set aside $10 billion for compensation and bonuses this year, it announced on Oct. 19 -- the same day it reported a third-quarter loss of $428 million.

The $10 billion figure is 24 percent less than the bonus pool at this time last year, but if the bonus pool actually fluctuated based on the company's profits, it would have decreased by 70 percent, because that's how much Goldman Sachs's profits have declined since 2010.

The company's stock, meanwhile, has fallen by 43 percent since the beginning of 2011, and 1,300 employees were laid off in the third quarter alone, with 1,000 more layoffs expected by the end of the year. It doesn't seem unreasonable to say that if executive bonuses were lower, some of those layoffs could have been avoided.

Boy I wish I could get performance bonuses after being "saved" by Obama cash...

 

[Wat_Tyler]

I do, too. I'd settle for a contribution to the city utility bill.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Yea, they're like the Post Office when it comes to needing tax dollars to cover the red ink...


This is a case of performance goals meaning we lost less money than they thought we would.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Get the lamb off the burner, we have a Greece Fire!

In a surprise development, Panos Beglitis, Defence Minister, a close confidante of Mr Papandreou, summoned the chiefs of the army, navy and air-force and announced that they were being replaced by other senior officers.

Neither the minister nor any government spokesman offered an explanation for the sudden, sweeping changes, which were scheduled to be considered on November 7 as part of a regular annual review of military leadership retirements and promotions. Usually the annual changes do not affect the entire leadership.

“Under no circumstances will these changes be accepted, at a time when the government is collapsing and has not even secured a vote of confidence,” said an official announcement by the opposition conservative New Democracy party.

“It has no moral or real authority any more, and such surprise moves can only worsen the crisis currently sweeping the country”.

The party said it will not accept the new nominations and will take its own decisions on armed forces changes if it comes to power at the general elections that are expected to take place in Greece if the government loses the vote of confidence on Friday night.

Did Andrew Stuttaford say something about “the return of politics” to Europe? Well, this move is positively retro. Recall, Greece is little more than a generation removed from rule by a military junta. In any event, something to keep an eye on.

Daniel Foster, NRO

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Grecian gulags.



At least they won't have to learn a new alphabet.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

There is very little reason for Greece, Spain, and Portugal to share a single monetary policy with Germany and France — their public finances, labor conditions, balance of trade, and other economic fundamentals are radically different, and cannot be brought into harmony without something approaching a soft dictatorship. The business cycles of the members of the European Union are not coordinated, and neither are their economic interests. Less competitive nations such as Greece suffer particularly from sharing a currency with highly productive nations such as Germany, because it takes away the option of using currency depreciation to make one’s exports more attractive on world markets. (Germany, a strong exporter, has benefited from this arrangement.) There is some wisdom in human traditions, and it turns out that the Germans and the Greek have separate countries for a reason — one of them being that they are separate peoples.

...

The theory of Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is that a borderless environment with a single currency would minimize economic friction and produce vast economies of scale, making Europe’s economy more competitive. Europe had an example in the United States, roughly comparable in size and population but with a much more dynamic economy, especially when it comes to the work force. There are gains to be had, unquestionably, but there are always tradeoffs, and in this case they produce a net loss for much of Europe. This was a gross miscalculation on the part of the European centralizers, who neglected to account for the fact that important, fundamental cultural differences — including language, family habits, and religion — mean that a Bulgarian factory worker or a Latvian financial manager cannot simply relocate to London or Paris the way an American worker can move from anywhere in the country to Houston or New York with relative ease. The formal, legal barriers to European integration are not the only barriers, nor even the most important. As it turns out, there are not many Europeans in Europe, which is mostly populated by French, Germans, Swiss, Italians, Greeks, Poles, etc. Wishful thinking will not make it otherwise.

Such realities can only be ignored for so long. The appetite of the Greek people for further austerity measures is limited, as is the appetite of the German people for expending their own hard-earned capital to prop up their careless, spendthrift neighbors. Nobody in Europe has much appetite for continued economic chaos. The best outcome and less likely outcome would be to have the economically stable northern European countries break away to form their own union. The second-best and more likely outcome is for Greece to leave the eurozone, voluntarily or involuntarily. Either scenario would probably entail a default and would bring about massive economic disruption, and not just for the Europeans. But the alternative is a prolonged, slow-motion crisis and the entrenching of the one-size-fits-all, central-planning approach from Brussels that is a very large part of the present problem and no part of its solution.

Editors, NRO

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Grecian gulags.



At least they won't have to learn a new alphabet.

Grecian Formula; you broke us, you fix us...

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Grecian Formula; you broke us, you fix us...

Comanchero formula: we kill some of you, and you come at us with the sun at your backs and kill us all.



And take what we stole.



It applies more places than one.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

But some of those Greek women are valuable to Ten Bears...

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Ah reckon so . . . . *spit*



Ah must have bitten the inside of my cheek again . . . .

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Yeah, don't you love the idea of asking the hands-out crowd to vote down a hand-out?




lol

 

[Frizzle_Fry]

Yeah, don't you love the idea of asking the hands-out crowd to vote down a hand-out?




lol

It's like asking the bible thumper to get off your porch as you point to your no soliciting sign. Then they come back with "I'm not soliciting, I'm spreading the word of god and guiding lost souls, like yours."

Next week: no trespassing sign, 410 with rock salt.

 

[Wat_Tyler]

Easier to ask a Comanchero to quit stealing.



Oh, wait . . . .

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I have no problem with the Bible Thumpers...



It's pretty easy to ease them on down the road without violence.

The hands-out crowd, on the other hand bites the hand that feeds with impunity...