Monday, October 25, 2010

Monday Morning Ramblings

I wonder if executive pay will cut at those banks that have been caught making fundamental management errors. Many banks are paid very large sums every year to service mortgage loans. Yet they have been exposed to have lied and filed false statements in foreclosures. Their internal management systems have been geared to cost cutting and minimal "service", contrary to their legal obligations. Some bank management has lied about its procedures when first asked [e. g. Bank of America].

When management fails in its duties, its pay should be cut. Or they should be fired. Obviously high level management is at fault - trying to wring out excessive profits, they have caused the organization to fail in its duties. Top management at all those banks should see serious cuts in bonuses; perhaps even pay cuts. Running the company properly is their jobs. When they fail, why give them a bonus at all?

Social Revolution

I wonder if worldwide social revolution will get a spark? Certainly the pile of tinder, kindling and dry fuel grows daily. The ruling classes of the rich and powerful and their overpaid, cossetted public employee bureaucracies seem to be getting serious pushback as they try to impose the costs of financial and governmental restructuring on the common man & woman. This is not simply a US issue.

Billionaires the worldwide are using looted wealth to obtain more power and status. Here's a quote from a column in the weekend FT: "On the opening day of Frieze [the Pavilion of Art and Design covering Berkeley Square in London], when I could only spare an hour to scout, I spotted a couple of Russian oligarchs, three North American billionaires, Tom Ford, a sprinkling of other celebrities and a lot of runners, all circling the big-hitters. The money is guarded fiercely by a wall of advisers-as-human-shields, while the amount of hot air that ricochets around the art scene is staggering. It is everything to do with names and status and nothing to do with love of art, or so it seems. There’s a palpable desire to acquire the latest wunderkinder – although how these wunderkinder are determined is a curious process and seems to have little to do with artistic merit. I wonder whether the oligarchs even care where the “wunders” will be next year? There’s so much money swilling about that while the “clever art” (that which doubles in value) may remain on the wall, the majority can be consigned to a Moscow basement. The increasing global disparity of wealth is disconcerting to witness."

Aristotle and Pericles would spit.

And people wonder why I am well-prepared to civil strife and armageddon.

Word of the Day

"Despond" - verb, intransitive [$10] archaic alt.: dispond [$1000]
Despond means to become discouraged.
Sentence: The middle class private sector desponds under their grossly unfair treatment by the ruling classes and their bureacracies. Without a loyal middle class, modern society can collapse. How far can they be pushed?

9 comments:

Bud said...

McDonald’s said it is getting ready to raise its prices on its fast-food items, burgers and fries because of higher commodities costs.
The fast-food chain is expecting commodity prices to increase by as much as 3 percent in 2011



doesn't the common man eat at macdonalds ???? what a joke you are Bman


dollar tankaroo

Bud said...

We appreciate that Mr. Geithner wants to re-establish U.S. economic leadership, but the rest of the world isn't likely to listen as long as it believes the main U.S. growth strategy is a cheaper dollar. The world doesn't need finance ministers micromanaging the "right" level of trade and capital flows. What the world needs is a more robust and durable economic expansion, above all from America.



from wsj today




mr geithner got laughed at this weekend at the G20

mfl59 said...

McDonalds does have some tasty coffee.....much cheaper and much tastier than Bob's favorites at SBUX...

Bunkerman said...

go for it, McD - Mra. B owns that stock

;)

Bunkerman said...

McD still gives great value for the $

better that SBUX.

Bunkerman said...

from WSJ: "The U.S. Interior Department is set to announce that it has approved a permit for a 1,000-megawatt solar project on federal land in the desert near Blythe, Calif., according to a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which advocates for renewable energy projects.

An Interior Department spokeswoman wasn't immediately available to comment. The Interior Department's website shows that online access to Interior's decision is "pending."

The $6 billion project is being developed by Solar Trust of America, a joint venture between Germany's Solar Millennium AG and privately held Ferrostaal AG. "

Great - US taxpayer is subsidizing the Germans to build a solar plant here.

uh ... Sun Boy ... I suppose this is not what you had in mind?

Spin-em said...

with Obamadollars its really only 4.7..lool

Spin-em said...

Bunk do you remember the Nixon penny??..."and getting smaller"

Bunkerman said...

lol, a penny used to be pure copper ... now some base metals.

I think the nickel might b enext.