Somebody to Blame

Remember this kid's game? They seem to have upgraded it from my days. No more dangerous pins. But if you watched the Sunday talk shows you will probably have noticed it has become an adult game.

The object of the game (especially if you are a Republican) is to find a Democrat to blame the whole economic mess on. This began under GW's watch and because of his deregulation and the first TARP funds were asked for by him, voted on my the Republicans that held both houses at the time, and doled out by Paulson with no strings.

All that said, it matters only whose fault it is to the extent we don't do whatever stupid thing they did again.

I was about to turn off my stream videos of economic panels when someone finally said something that made a great deal of sense: "Too big to fail. Ergo to big to be managed."

We got in this mess because GW said AIG was too big to fail. Too big to go the Chapter 11 bankruptcy route which would have negated all those contracts for huge bonuses. And why did AIG and the other mega banks like Citibank and Bank of America get too big to fail? Because the Republicans, wanting free trade, deregulated the industry and allowed them to gobble up lessor banks untill they became slugs unable to move and adjust quickly. Sort of financial Jabba the Huts from StarWars.

This is not capitalism or even free trade this is blackmail by legal mobs of CEO's. When three CEO's can meet on a corporate jet and decide on how they are going to rape customers we are talking financial mafia. Why else with deregulation would all credit card fees and rates and excesses be the same across the board?

And the banking industry is just where it has currently shown up. Here you really notice it in gasoline prices! No individual station can charge a lessor amount or their supply of gasoline gets cut off. Or how about electrical utilities. I live on a coop but we have to buy our electricity form Plains Electric. They and every other electricity producer doubled and tripled their rates in the middle of winter. Remember Enron? They even did rolling blackouts to convince buyers of their power they had to pay more and more and more.

Then there are current food prices. They raised prices because of gas prices in 2008. Well, gas is half that price now. Corn and other grains which were going into ethonal are way cheaper now, but have we seen a cut in prices? No! They retool and redesign packages to sell us less at more but simply lower prices or stop excess packaging? No!

The mob mentality developing around AIG bonuses is not going away because they are merely the tip of the iceberg. The American consumer has been treated like the Donkey's Ass for so long we can no longer sit down comfortably. This shit has got to stop.

PS: The blame game isn't working. You can spindoctor this all you want. We don't care who did it. Fix it.

Fear or Guilt or Greed

In Feudal England and Colonial American Tar and Feathering was a rather popular means of humiliation by the public. The Boston Commissioner of Customs John Malcolm was tar and feathered four weeks after the Boston Tea Party as one of the more famous examples.

It was also common to ride the person around town or out of town on a rail so the crowds could throw insults and I assume other objects. Today we seem to use the press for these acts of humiliation. But they are evidently still effective as an executive of AIG reported that several of their top employees quit and left town in fear for their lives.

Well, even in the American west if has been a long time since a lynch mob went further than the local bar. I have to wonder if this tale of loss is spin-doctoring to cover up those too greedy to give back their bonuses or heading for off-shore to hide their ill gotten gains from the new tax law being passed that would claim 90% back. If the report was made to gain the sympathy of the American people they have another think coming. I doubt we would retaliate but I do think if it is unwise to put AIG on your resume these days. So where would they work in the future?

Course they could go straight to the FBI investigating possible felonies committed by AIG and other banking firms responsible for this crisis and get in the witness protection program.

Rioting in the Streets

It is no fun when it is real. I remember the civil rights riots and those after the death of Martin Luther King. The last thing President Obama wants right now is to have to bring home the National Guard from Iraq early to quell riots in the streets. Fortunately he read the handwriting on the wall.

Obama Tells Geithner to Block A.I.G. Bonuses

President Obama has instructed the Treasury secretary to try to stop the faltering insurance giant American International Group from paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to executives, as the administration scrambled to
avert a populist backlash against banks and Wall Street that could complicate Mr. Obama's economic recovery agenda.

Complicate at the very least. If I was not angry enough at the bonuses the list of banks AIG gave bailout money to - mostly foreign banks - really got my dander up. And then Cheney has the gull to go on air and say the financial crisis was not caused by GW and his administration. Give me a break. They had it last. It was under their watch. They took off all the regulations and let the CEO's run rampant. And then they doled out our money in TARP funds with absolutely no strings attached.

Off with their heads!

There has to be a special place in Hell

After posting earlier my blog about how the recession was effecting my life on just the little things I was shocked to get the following news alert from the New York Times:

A.I.G. to Pay $100 Million in Bonuses After Huge Bailout

Despite being bailed out with more than $170 billion from the Treasury and Federal Reserve, the American International Group is preparing to pay about $100 million in bonuses to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year.

We, the citizens of the United States, gave these leaders in our economic destruction $170 billion of our hard earned tax dollars (when we still had money to be earned). And they are giving $100 million in bonuses to them? We are living on the bare minimum and thousands are in tent cities and foreclosure and they have the gull to accept huge sums of money?

I am reminded of the French Revolution and I say as they said: Off with their heads!