Are You Feelin' Sorry For The Poor Banksters Yet?

The first post I saw when I got back from San Miguel today was one John Amato did over at Crooks and Liars about what a doofus Rick Santelli is. He sounds angry that Santelli and the shiftless Wall Street crowd is trying to shift blame for the Depression away from their own greed, avarice and colossal self-entitlement and onto the backs on their victims: the rest of us. John's got 3 serious videos up to back up his point. Watch 'em (at the link above) but I want to show you another one that was sent to me by my friend Elliott. By way of set-up, keep in mind that uncountable billions of taxpayer money have gone into the pockets of these crooks who have not used it to unfreeze the credit markets, the supposed reason we held our collective noses and let Congress give it to them.

I'm guessin' John and Elliott would both agree with me that most Americans-- not counting deranged neo-Nazis, obviously-- with an annual income under 7 figures are sick and tired of the crooked Wall Street/bankster crowd sucking the system dry and then crying about how they're suffering. When Wall Street scum are headed towards their version of the gutter and when Bush Regimistas can't find respectable work, it's the natural order's way of beginning the process of righting itself... a little. The corporate media lapdogs for this crew, though, would prefer to paint them as victims themselves, if not martyrs. If a few hundred Wall Street banksters were rounded up, quickly tried and then garroted... well, I might see a reason or two for some misgivings. But when banksters "everywhere fear layoffs [and]... even those who keep their jobs may face a far different future than they had imagined-- one without the big payouts that have long made Wall Street a beacon for the ambitious and the acquisitive," no tears come to my eyes.

Those finance industry workers still standing after the brutal banking collapses of the past year had to contend with a major slash in bonus pay-- with many losing as much as one-third of their total compensation. Then the Obama administration imposed a pay cap of $500,000 on certain senior executives whose companies received substantial bailout money.

Now, analysts anticipate pay will sink even further, and some question whether the shift could permanently downsize the high-flying culture of Wall Street.

Not garroted but being forced to live only 100 times better than the average Americans instead of 500 times better. Let me rend my clothes. Recent MBAs will see their compensation sliced from $150,000/year to a mere $105,000. Imagine having to live that way! And "Vice presidents, who in flush years have made $300,000 to $500,000, saw a drop of $90,000 to $150,000... Morale is terrible right now... A number of firms have seen a jump in the employee hours spent at the company gym, as people try to cope with declining opportunity and rising stress" Is there no justice!

Have you met anyone who thinks shoveling more billions of dollars to these dead-asses is actually a good idea? And now we hear that aside from taking the money meant to unfreeze the credit markets and dividing it up among themselves as "performance bonuses" and golden parachutes, they're also using the money to hire lobbyists to further corrupt the political system, to get lawmakers' minds off nationalizing banks on life-support, and to further disadvantage the very taxpayers whose money they are being given. When is enough enough? Here's when:



KTLK's most outspoken and riveting host, Johnny Wendell, is no fan of Rick Santelli either and I have a feeling from some e-mails he sent me today that he thinks the justice rendered in the clip above doesn't go even nearly as far as we need to. He asked me to read a story date-lined Dublin about 120,000 Irish protestors who seem to understand the root causes of the recession-- and what to do about it-- far, far better than Rick Santelli ever will.

The demonstration came a day after the global economic crisis led to another political casualty elsewhere in Europe, with Latvia's prime minister quitting as his country grapples with deepening recession.

Organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and featuring teachers, police, civil servants and others, the Irish protest was the "first step in a rolling campaign of action," ICTU general secretary David Begg said.

Police put the number of protesters at up to 120,000.

Marchers are particularly opposed to a pension levy on some 350,000 public servants which is designed to save about 1.4 billion euros (1.8 billion dollars) this year.

According to IMPACT, Ireland's biggest public sector trade union, the levy will cost low to middle-income earners between 1,500 euros and 2,800 euros a year.

The union's general secretary Peter McLoone has said his members were angered by the way in which public servants were singled out by the levy for "a harsh and inequitable penalty."