everyone is horrified at the global economic collapse and i am no different.
the new york times today states that AIG, one of the largest recipients of recent tax-payer bailouts is set to pay out $165 million in bonuses by the end of the day. northern trust of chicago received $1.5 billion in bailout money and laid off 450 employees, but still engaged in frivilous shmoozing by jetting clients and employees to los angeles in february for lavish "business development" involving four-star treatment, private concerts by famous popular musicians, and no strings attached.
my friend NH told me on friday after the blippy rise in market strength this last week that the system was working as it should - buyers were buying discounted stocks and profits would be made on them when they were sold and the heady game of short and long would continue as it must.
i find this position completely untenable. the argument that bonuses are contractually obliged to be paid is sickening - if there is no out for these institutions to NOT pay these monies, then they're not bonuses at all. the notion that these bonuses are required to retain the best and brightest leaders of our financial institutions is also rendered completely absurd by the abyssmal failing of the industry as a whole to self-check and self-moderate, resulting in the catastrophic consequences we see over and over and over again. the final insult to the entire world is the claim that it would be "illegal" to refuse to pay these bonuses because it would constitute a breach of contract.
that we, the normal person, and not the "masters of the universe" allow this to continue demonstrates the total lack of imagination that we have as a generation. the inability to imagine an alternative and a means to get there are hallmarks of our society. in the past, dazzling geniuses like Alexander, Constantine, Martin Luther, Napoleon, Washington, and even Lenin, Mao, or Kennedy, all had visions for a greater future full of honour, order, prosperity and freedom (albeit all through very very different means). today, billions of us sit back watching CNN and CNBC and Comedy Central waiting for the next shockwave to come and decimate our lives. every day, the machivellianism of the market system that has become woven into the thread of everything that all of us do every single day, burns our skins and poisons our lives, but we are powerless to do anything about it.
especially not without any new ideas.
well, i've got one. for a start, i would pass an omnibus bill, much like the ones that facilitated trillions of dollars of tax-payer bailouts, to TAX THE FUCK out of all executive bonuses for any institution that received a taxpayer bailout to the tune of, oh, let's say 100%. too harsh? alright, maybe they should pass a different bill that makes it illegal to NOT DONATE that entire bonus BACK TO THE INSTITUTION who paid it, under penalty of say, death - such activity is absolutely legal and well within executive authority to enact. if the "best and the brightest" don't like it, then they can quit their jobs and go find another one at... oh? what's that?... OH!!! wait a minute! all those other banks and insurers are GONE. well, i guess you had better be thankful that you HAVE the job that you HAVE, just like everyone else on Main Street, you simpering jackasses!
- g
song of the day for hating the fuck out of sodding madoff motherfuckers: far too frail, skinny puppy.
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