Stock Market Meltdown!

[EpicForest]

I'm so fucking glad I don't pay income tax to our government. How much of this money goes to paying off investors and the top dogs at these companies ?

Not ONE CENT of my money goes to these bailouts.

I can't believe all the suckers who put stock into this system. All those 401k's and the like, that's what you get being a team player.

Fuck 'em.

[zepyep]

Hi all,

Hard Times?

Despite the economic downturn, a $700 billion rescue and a public outcry over excessive pay, some on Wall Street can still count on those hefty year-end bonuses.

Bloomberg News reports Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have set aside $6.9 and $6.4 billion respectively to pay for them. Merrill Lynch, which has experienced five straight quarters of losses and a 70 percent slide in its stock this year, has allocated about $6.7 billion.

Even some employees of Lehman Brothers, which in September declared the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history, will get the same bonus they received a year ago.

Workers at Merrill Lynch will actually receive larger bonuses than in 2007. That's because 3,000 employees have been laid off this year and the bonus money will be divided among fewer people.

KB

[wanna be drummer]

Fuck the bastards

[ally]

Fuck the bastards

No shit

[eternal light]

The New Trough

The Wall Street bailout looks a lot like Iraq — a "free-fraud zone" where private contractors cash in on the mess they helped create

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It didn't have to be this way. Five days before Paulson struck his deal with the banks, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown negotiated a similar bailout — only he extracted meaningful guarantees for taxpayers: voting rights at the banks, seats on their boards, 12 percent in annual dividend payments to the government, a suspension of dividend payments to shareholders, restrictions on executive bonuses, and a legal requirement that the banks lend money to homeowners and small businesses.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story.../the_new_trough

Is that so hard to do, Mr. President? It is the taxpayers' money and they should get some benefit from the deal and receive value for what they paid instead of a free ride for Wall Street.

And in today's trading the market rallied but it is still treading water below 10,000.

Dow Jones Industrial Average 8,835.25 +552.59 +6.67%

http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_q...ol=%24US%3Aindu

Edited November 14, 2008 by eternal light

[The Rover]

Bailout Lacks Oversight Despite Billions Pledged

Watchdog Panel Is Empty; Report Is Unfinished

By Amit R. Paley

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, November 13, 2008; A01

In the six weeks since lawmakers approved the Treasury's massive bailout of financial firms, the government has poured money into the country's largest banks, recruited smaller banks into the program and repeatedly widened its scope to cover yet other types of businesses, from insurers to consumer lenders.

Along the way, the Bush administration has committed $290 billion of the $700 billion rescue package.

Yet for all this activity, no formal action has been taken to fill the independent oversight posts established by Congress when it approved the bailout to prevent corruption and government waste. Nor has the first monitoring report required by lawmakers been completed, though the initial deadline has passed.

"It's a mess," said Eric M. Thorson, the Treasury Department's inspector general, who has been working to oversee the bailout program until the newly created position of special inspector general is filled. "I don't think anyone understands right now how we're going to do proper oversight of this thing."

In approving the rescue package, lawmakers trumpeted provisions in the legislation that established layers of independent scrutiny, including a special inspector general to be nominated by the White House and a congressional oversight panel to be named by lawmakers themselves.

Some lawmakers and their aides fear that political squabbling on Capitol Hill and bureaucratic logjams could delay their work for months. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office, which also has some oversight responsibilities, is worried about the difficulty of hiring people who can understand the intensely complicated financial work involved.

The legislation grants the special inspector, who is expected to be the primary overseer of the program, a budget of $50 million. The measure calls for him to conduct audits and investigations of how the government spends money under the bailout program, including on equity investments in firms. In particular, he is to report about any assets acquired and their value, plus an explanation of why they were acquired and details on individuals or companies involved in the transactions.

The leading candidate for the post is Neil M. Barofsky, a federal prosecutor in New York, and his nomination could come as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the matter.

Barofsky, an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, is the chief of the office's mortgage fraud group and the lead prosecutor in the $2.4 billion accounting-fraud case against former executives of the collapsed financial firm Refco. He was formerly a white-collar criminal defense attorney in New York.

It is unclear that Barofsky would be confirmed by the Senate, as required, anytime soon. One complicating factor is a battle between the Finance and Banking committees over which has jurisdiction over the confirmation process. Spokeswomen for both panels said the issue has not been resolved and may not be until after President Bush names his choice.

Nonetheless, the finance committee has scheduled a hearing for Monday afternoon in the event that a nominee is named.

Several congressional aides, however, said they did not understand how the Senate could possibly do all the proper vetting for such a critical appointment in just a few days. Thorson's confirmation process, for example, took nearly a year. But Treasury officials and Senate aides worry that if the nominee is not confirmed next week, when Congress is back in town for a lame-duck session, then the process might be delayed well into next year.

Some Republican lawmakers have said they are also concerned that Democrats may avoid acting on the nomination so that Barack Obama can choose his own special inspector general after he becomes president. But people familiar with the matter said Barofsky, the leading candidate for the position, would be palatable to the incoming administration because he supported Obama.

In the meantime, Thorson is trying to oversee the program in addition to his other responsibilities. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. asked him to take on those duties. Thorson has a few dozen people working on the program, but none are doing so full time. He said there should be at least 100 people in the new special inspector general's office.

Lawmakers from both parties have criticized the White House for not moving more quickly to name an appointee.

"Considering how taxpayers' money around Washington isn't respected, a day shouldn't go by without having an inspector general checking on it," said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member on the Finance Committee.

Tony Fratto, deputy White House press secretary, declined to comment on the nominee or when he or she would be named but said there is adequate scrutiny of the bailout.

"No program in the history of the federal government has had more layers of oversight and reporting and transparency," he said.

For their part, lawmakers have yet to nominate the five-member Congressional Oversight Panel, though leaders of both parties said they hoped they would be named by the end of the month and start work by December. People familiar with the matter said possible nominees included current and former government and industry officials, though some had to recuse themselves because of conflicts of interest.

The panel's mandate is to look at the use of Paulson's authority and the impact of the program on the financial markets and mortgage crisis.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, said his concerns about oversight diminished after the Treasury program's focus shifted from purchases of financial firms' troubled assets to capital injections into companies. "The concern was they'd be buying assets and we wouldn't know the price," Frank said. The revised bailout program "doesn't have the conflicts of interest and the other things people were concerned about."

The delays in selecting both the special inspector general and the congressional oversight panel have prevented the release of a detailed oversight report required in the legislation. Under the law, the congressional panel was required to release a report 30 days after the bailout program began, a deadline that has passed. It is supposed to issue a more elaborate report on the financial regulatory process by Jan. 20, a deadline congressional aides said will be nearly impossible to make.

The special inspector general is supposed to release a report within 60 days of his confirmation. Though Thorson, the Treasury inspector general, is not required to prepare a report, he said he might feel obligated to issue one if the Senate does not confirm a special inspector by Monday.

The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, is also required by the legislation to conduct oversight of the program. The agency's mission is to look at the overall performance of the initiative and its effect on the financial system.

The GAO has dedicated about 20 people to look at the bailout and has office space at the Treasury Department. Agency officials said they expect to issue a brief report on the program, as mandated by the legislation, within the next month.

The legislation also created a body called the Financial Stability Oversight Board, whose five members include Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. But it has no staff of its own, and few expect that policymakers can conduct oversight of themselves. "It's sort of a joke in terms of oversight," a congressional aide said.

[cryingbluerain]

Democrats talked this country into a tailspin to win the election. So how do we reverse that tide of public sentiment they created? Can a Democrat come out and say, 'hey, we were just kind of using that Great Depression rhetoric to win the election, we dont want you all to really like believe any of that'.

[PennyLane]

Oh how we soon forget. We had 8 years of Bush who got us in this mess as well as the first 6 years of the Republicans controlling the houses. It takes Democrats to clean up what the Republicans did. And...I don't think 4 years will clean up what Bush created!

[eternal light]

Today's closing numbers.

Dow Jones Industrial Average 7,997.28 -427.47 -5.07%

52 Week Low 7,882.51

http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_q...ol=%24US%3Aindu

[PennyLane]

Interesting Quotes from our President in Washington, DC:

"We got plenty of money in Washington" - GW Bush, June 2, 2008

"Wait a minute. What did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon-gas?...That's interesting. I hadn't heard that." - GW Bush, Feb. 28, 2008

"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office."

[wanna be drummer]

Oh how we soon forget. We had 8 years of Bush who got us in this mess as well as the first 6 years of the Republicans controlling the houses. It takes Democrats to clean up what the Republicans did. And...I don't think 4 years will clean up what Bush created!

Democrats have had two years to clean up and have literally got nohting done.

2 years = 0 progress.

Yay democrats

[PennyLane]

Democrats have had two years to clean up and have literally got nohting done.

2 years = 0 progress.

Yay democrats

How can you clean up 8 years worth of mess in 2?

[wanna be drummer]

How can you clean up 8 years worth of mess in 2?

I didn't expect them to fix everything, but fixing ANYTHING would've been a start. Unfortunatekly, they've yet to act in even the most insignifcant ways, so they've fixed absolutely not a damn thing, not one.

[PennyLane]

I didn't expect them to fix everything, but fixing ANYTHING would've been a start. Unfortunatekly, they've yet to act in even the most insignifcant ways, so they've fixed absolutely not a damn thing, not one.

They have accomplished one thing - gave $700M away with no strings attached and I would not really call that an accomplishment...We taxpayers were conned!

[wanna be drummer]

They have accomplished one thing - gave $700M away with no strings attached and I would not really call that an accomplishment...We taxpayers were conned!

That's not an accomplishment, it was a joke. The rescue package is utter bullshit.

Liberals and Democrats have it made though, they can always just say that its the Republicans fault for digging a hole too big or something, to cover for their failure

[PennyLane]

Liberals and Democrats have it made though, they can always just say that its the Republicans fault for digging a hole too big or something, to cover for their failure

[wanna be drummer]

Who hasn't done jack shit. She doesn't get a free pass just because thigns were bad.

[PennyLane]

Who hasn't done jack shit. She doesn't get a free pass just because things were bad.

You are absolutely right. We just agree to disagree.

[wanna be drummer]

You are absolutely right. We just agree to disagree.

What are we disagreeing on?

[PennyLane]

What are we disagreeing on?

You were talking about liberals and democrats.

[wanna be drummer]

You were talking about liberals and democrats.

And?

All I'm saying is that the Democrats' last two years don't get a free pass just because things were bad when they came in. What is that we are disagreeing on?

[PennyLane]

And?

All I'm saying is that the Democrats' last two years don't get a free pass just because things were bad when they came in. What is that we are disagreeing on?

You are absolutely right!

[wanna be drummer]

I know that...so what do we disagree on?

[PennyLane]

I know that...so what do we disagree on?

I lost count. BTW, the Dow is under 8,000.....

[wanna be drummer]

And Pelosi will point fingers in the morning as opposed to actually do something