Taxpayers enhancing bankers wealth

Who says QE2 is an abysmal failure at generating a "wealth effect" for the broader population? Bloomberg reports that on Wall Street 56% of bankers received a larger bonus than last year. It is great that according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the average American is also making more money than in 2009. Oh wait. Additionally, fifty percent of U.S. respondents were satisfied with the payout, while 34 percent were dissatisfied and 16 percent were neither, according to the survey.


From Bloomberg:   “Financial markets professionals have been stretched over the last two years and recruitment activity continues to strengthen,” Constance Melrose, managing director of eFinancialCareers North America, said in the statement. “There are more opportunities this year for Wall Street professionals to make a career move, and that’s true on the sell-side and more recently the buy-side.”

Bonuses decreased for 19 percent of those surveyed and stayed the same for 25 percent. Eight percent received no bonus, according to eFinancialCareers, a unit of Dice Holdings Inc. The survey was conducted from Jan. 3 to Jan. 12 and received responses from financial firm employees who knew their bonus amount.

Of the U.S. respondents who received a bigger bonus, 31 percent attributed it to their firm’s performance and 40 percent said it’s related to personal accomplishments. Of those who received a smaller bonus, 53 percent said the primary reason was firm’s performance, and 3 percent said it was their own performance.



What was omitted was that 100% of bankers would have no bonus (or base) if it wasn't for continued DC-Fed wealth transfer from the future of the eviscerated middle class.  

Briefly speaking.......

I hope the Packers win the Super Bowl.   Jay Cutler gave up.  Give me the kid from Colorado State to run my offense any day.   I like this Mendenhall kid who can pack a punch from the Steelers.  Great style, nearly reminds me of the days of old when I starred for the "Cunning Linguists" at Hamline Law and won the league championship play flag football.  Want to hear a bunch of whiners?  Listen to the average law school football team harangue referees. 

Will be interesting to check out the prices of food and beverage at the Super Bowl.  Food inflation has literally sky-rocketed in Russia and Chine over the last 6 to 8 weeks.   It will be coming to a supermarket near you soon enough.

No, I am not listening to President Teleprompters speech tonight.  No need.  I hear enough lies coming from the Federal Reserve, Wall Street and a number of tribal councils to listen to any more.  

Interesting statistic........

The social undertow of fear, skepticism and anger is coming as Google queries of the "Buy A Gun" search querry have just hit an all time high. How much of this is due to the recent events from Tucson, AZ is unclear. What is clear is that the trend is most certainly not your friend (unless you are of course the CEO of Smith and Wesson).

Don't ever question a drunk.............

A woman was shopping at the local supermarket where she selected:


A half-gallon of 2% milk

A carton of eggs

A quart of orange juice

A head of lettuce

A 2 lb. can of coffee

A 1 lb. package of bacon

As she was unloading her items on the conveyor belt to check out, a drunk standing behind her watched as she placed the items in front of the cashier. While the cashier was ringing up the purchases, the drunk calmly stated 'You must be single.' She was a bit startled by this proclamation, but was intrigued by the derelict's intuition, since she indeed had never found Mr. Right. She looked at the six items on the belt and saw nothing particularly unusual about the selections that could have tipped off the drunk to her marital status. Curiosity getting the better of her, she said, 'Yes you are correct. But how on earth did you know that?'

The drunk replied, 'Cause you're ugly.

Fred Hickey in Barrons this weekend.......

“Last August, things weren’t looking so well. Then Ben Bernanke gave a speech in Jackson Hole that implied the Fed would engage in quantitative easing, and from that point forward, the Dow added 1,400 points. Gasoline prices went from $2.65 a gallon to well over $3.00 ? a $50 billion hit to consumers. Food prices rose to record levels. It caused a major imbalance in the economy. If you own financial assets, you’re doing quite well. If you don’t, you’re getting hit by higher food prices, higher insurance costs, higher everything, and you’re not getting any interest on your savings ... The economy has structural problems and we aren’t dealing with them. Money-printing won’t work, yet that’s the prescription we continue to give the patient. If the Fed keeps printing after June we’ll have higher gasoline and food prices and more imbalances until this ends. And at some point, it will end, because the dollar will fall apart. What we are doing now makes everything appear rosy. But it is devastatingly terrible policy for the long-term.”

My dog...........

A dog sleeps about 20 hours a day. He has his food prepared for him.  He can eat whenever he wants, 24/7/365.   His meals are provided at no cost to him. He visits the Dr. Once a year for his checkup, and again during the year if any medical needs arise. For this he pays nothing and nothing is required of him. He lives in a nice neighborhood in a house that is much larger than He needs, but He is not required to do any upkeep. If He makes a mess, someone else cleans it up. He has his choice of luxurious places to sleep. He receives these accommodations absolutely free. He is living like a king, and has absolutely no expenses whatsoever.   All of his costs are picked up by others who go out and earn a living every day.

I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me like a brick in the head,  my dog is a democrat !

The anger grows...........

Anti-poverty campaigners renewed their call for new taxes on the financial sector after JP Morgan Chase set aside almost $10bn to cover basic pay and bonuses for its investment banking division.  The Robin Hood Tax campaign said it was "outrageous" that JP Morgan Chase's investment bankers are to receive an average payout of $369,651 (£233,000) for 2010. The group, which supports a global tax on banks' financial transactions, said the size of the payments were "a slap in the face to ordinary people".

"If banks can afford to pay billions in bonuses, they can clearly afford to be taxed a great deal more. A £20bn Robin Hood tax in the UK would help avoid the worst of the cuts and show we are all in this together," said David Hillman, spokesman for the Robin Hood Tax campaign.  "While bankers wallow in cash, the general public are suffering unemployment and cuts to public services," Hillman added.

The figures were released after JP Morgan Chase kicked off the US banking reporting season by reporting a 47% jump in profits for the last quarter of 2010. America's second largest bank beat Wall Street forecasts, thanks to an improved performance from its retail banking and credit card operations.

Imagine if Atlanta's toll thieves got this sentence.........

A Chinese court announced Friday it will retry a farmer sentenced to life in prison for evading highway tolls after a massive public outcry over his heavy punishment.  The court in central Henan province had sentenced Shi Jianfeng to life imprisonment for fraud for avoiding highway tolls that added up to more than 3.68 million yuan ($560,000), the official Xinhua News Agency reported. He was also fined 2 million yuan ($302,000).

Shi mounted fake military license plates on his two trucks so they could avoid paying tolls more than 2,300 times between May 2008 and January 2009 when he ran a business transporting gravel. Military vehicles don't have to pay highway tolls.  News of the verdict triggered an uproar among Chinese who argued in online postings and commentaries that shorter sentences were given out for the more serious crimes of rape or murder. The comments also strayed beyond Shi's case to popular complaints that highway tolls are too high, especially for a farmer.