Well, just another bailout that didn't work. Brett Favre was supposed to save the New York Jets, which would have made the city's sports fans happy, though not as happy as those Wall Streeters in their stadium skyboxes. But in the middle of a boom — the Jets were 8-3 and seemed a cinch for th ... More >>
The recently fashionable practice of hawking disgraced ponzi-meister Bernie Madoff items on eBay has spread to most of the other firms which have tanked in recent months.Why people would want items commemorating vast, endemic fraud and even worse bumbling is beyond us. But, we did a search, and, hey ... More >>
Harkavy Plans are moving apace to purposely set up a "toxic bank" full of poisonous assets to further bail out those banks that had greedily and recklessly accumulated them. Call it Shitibank. And give it the naming rights to the new baseball stadium for the New York Mets, taking the moniker awa ... More >>
The Congo War: a report by Al Jazeera from this past November. The deadliest war since World War II — the slaughter in the Congo — drags on and on amid relatively little notice. Arabs and Jews are still killing each other, and Israel's about to elect an even harder-line government. ... More >>
This morning Treasury Secretary Geithner unveiled the new $2 trillion bank bailout plan, which as previously reported counts on private investors to buy up some "bad assets" of troubled banks in order to unclog their pipes and get them lending again. The New York Times helpfully puts a graph on its ... More >>
Barack Obama has been hassling AIG since before he was President, but has been going along with their standing bailout plan. Now that it's revealed AIG is paying out another $165 million in bonuses, Obama is joining Andrew Cuomo*, Barney Frank, Russ Feingold and others in clamoring to get the money ... More >>
With Bernie Madoff safely locked away, the nation is turning its righteous indignation toward AIG, which has been taking our tax dollars and giving them to other failed businesses and its own failed executives. Charles Grassley of the senate finance committee suggested those excecutives kill thems ... More >>
While everyone was freaking out over AIG bonuses, Andrew Cuomo won a victory in his attempt to get justice on the $4 billion in Merrill Lynch bonuses that were outraging us back in January. A judge has ruled that Cuomo may disclose the names of the Merrill bonus execs whom he has subpoenaed in the c ... More >>
Everyone remains angry at AIG, but as the first rage-wave subsides, some parties are looking to affix blame on persons rather than initials. Some notice that Chris Dodd did not end the bonuses in the terms of the bailout legislation. But as that directive came from Treasury, blame also falls on Secr ... More >>
The House just passed a bill to "levy a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid to employees with family incomes above $250,000 at companies that have received at least $5 billion in government bailout money," says AP. (Reason's David Weigel calls it the "Fuck you, AIG" bill.) We'll see whether this hastily- ... More >>
The House just passed a bill to "levy a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid to employees with family incomes above $250,000 at companies that have received at least $5 billion in government bailout money," says AP. (Reason's David Weigel calls it the "Fuck you, AIG" bill.) We'll see whether this hastily- ... More >>
Nobody fucks with steamroller Cuomo! Not only has AIG given up the names of its controversial bonus recipients, for which Cuomo subpoenaed them -- Bank of America has just agreed to give Cuomo the names of the Merrill-Lynch bonus-takers who absconded with $4 billion just before bailout basket case B ... More >>
And how was your week? Our week began with a Top Model riot and ended with a days-long pitchfork uprising over A to the I to the G, ad nauseum. But we had some fun in between. Surely the highlight of the week was our Bill O'Reilly audio porn, which drew the attention of many hardcore aficionados ... More >>
Andrew Cuomo announces that a portion of the contentious AIG bonuses, which he used the full force and majesty of his office to investigate, are being returned. Face is saved, anger abated, plans for summer homes in Biarritz scrapped. This gives cover for the Senate to postpone its vote on the punit ... More >>
As expected, Treasury Secretary Geithner and Fed head Bernanke are on the Hill telling Congress they need the power to take over non-bank financial institutions like AIG to prevent our recent disasters from happening again. At today's hearings Republicans, not yet having talking points from Rush Lim ... More >>
A resignation letter from an AIG executive, Jake DeSantis, to boss Ed Liddy, long and full of hurt feelings ("you failed to stand up for us in the face of untrue and unfair accusations from certain members of Congress last Wednesday... you didn't defend us against the baseless and reckless comments ... More >>
Why won't people leave AIG alone? This one poor AIG guy had to work all year for a lousy $742,000. And still we persecute them! Andrew Cuomo, who previously subpoenaed AIG for their bonus babies' names, is now subpoenaing them about their Financial Products division's credit default swaps -- which ... More >>
Call it Gall Street. How else to describe an industry that applauds nearly $500 million in bonuses for executives taking an entire economy down with them?
Read this and then start hunting for some recession-proof bargains
Read this and then start hunting for some recession-proof bargains
It wasn't your overdue mortgage.
Rightbloggers talked a lot over the past eight years about Bush Derangement Syndrome, liberal sufferers of which thought Bush engaged in a totalitarian overthrow of our liberties. One of the symptoms was calling the President a fascist. "A strong word to fling about," warned The Anchoress, who not ... More >>
Fuck mortgage-backed securities, default credit swaps, AIG, Fanny Mae, Freddy Mac, Alan Greenspan, George W. Bush, Citigroup, Chrysler, Washington Mutual, Bernie Madoff, Sir Allen Stanford, Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner, suicide loans, TARP, GM, Wells Fargo, Jerome Kerviel, al-Qaeda, Iran, Osama b ... More >>
We're pleased to see the Obama Administration has asked for new powers to regulate the trading of derivatives -- those "financial instruments" by means of which, in the good old days, big banks shuttled bundles of debt back and forth, creating the illusion of economic health until it all went to shi ... More >>
Mayor Mogul stepped on his own tongue yesterday while explaining away the Grand Poobah confab he attended with buddies Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Ted Turner, the Rockefellers and Oprah, revealed in the Times today. "All my friends are philanthropic, or they probably wouldn't be my friends," he said ... More >>
Mayor Mogul stepped on his own tongue yesterday while explaining away the Grand Poobah confab he attended with buddies Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Ted Turner, the Rockefellers and Oprah, revealed in the Times today. "All my friends are philanthropic, or they probably wouldn't be my friends," he said ... More >>
Mayor Mogul stepped on his own tongue yesterday while explaining away the Grand Poobah confab he attended with buddies Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Ted Turner, the Rockefellers and Oprah, revealed in the Times today. "All my friends are philanthropic, or they probably wouldn't be my friends," he said ... More >>
Mayor Mogul stepped on his own tongue yesterday while explaining away the Grand Poobah confab he attended with buddies Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Ted Turner, the Rockefellers and Oprah, revealed in the Times today. "All my friends are philanthropic, or they probably wouldn't be my friends," he said ... More >>
Good riddance to an ill-fated plane. The Airbus A320 jetliner that lost a battle with birds and then a life-or-death battle with hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger in last year's "Miracle on the Hudson" is finally headed for the auction block and then the scrap heap. Shortly after the one-year anniv ... More >>
Good riddance to an ill-fated plane. The Airbus A320 jetliner that lost a battle with birds and then a life-or-death battle with hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger in last year's "Miracle on the Hudson" is finally headed for the auction block and then the scrap heap. Shortly after the one-year anniv ... More >>
