SEARCH
Big Bankers Howl—and Other Tidbits
Finally, some good news on the jobs front. The Council of Economic Advisers announced that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has now created or saved between 1.5 million and 2 million jobs. The economic recovery package also added several percentage points to the growth of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). Other tidbits:
• President Obama yesterday announced his intention to propose a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee that would require the largest and most highly levered Wall Street firms to pay back taxpayers for the extraordinary assistance provided so that the TARP program does not add to the deficit. Even before the announcement, Big Bankers were squealing like stuck pigs. From Think Progress:
Edward Yingling, president and chief executive, American Bankers Association: “To impose yet another burden on the industry would obviously decrease their ability to lend.”
In fact, big banks haven’t been lending much, and now they’re focused on taxpayer-funded Bonus Time for Wall Street CEOs. As American Prospect’s Tim Fernholz pointed out, the TARP law does stipulate that any losses be recouped from the banks.
• The rate of private-sector wage growth likely will remain at or below historic low levels in the coming months, according to the final fourth quarter Wage Trend Indicator released Jan. 14 by the Bureau of National Affairs (subscription required). Said Kathryn Kobe, an economic consultant who maintains and helped develop BNA’s WTI database:
Although the unemployment rate has stabilized recently at a high level, the prospects of substantial wage gains in 2010 for most workers look grim.
• At The Nation, Katha Pollitt takes a look at how women have fared in the past decade. One finding: The percentage of female-headed households in poverty worsened from 28.5 percent in 2000 to 31.4 percent in 2008. Don’t count on a big block of female votes anytime soon in Congress, either: In 2000, women were 13 percent of the House and Senate; in 2009 they were 17 percent. Writes Pollitt:
If women have to make up about 30 percent of leadership before they can move a feminist agenda, we’re looking at 30 more years of political marginality.
 |
Become a Fan on Facebook |  |
Follow Us on Twitter |  |
Subscribe to YouTube |  |
Subscribe to Blog RSS | ||||
3 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
What a farce! This fig leaf goes nowhere toward dethroning these robber barons. Are we supposed to believe that the tail is wagging the dog now? The thieves are making a show of protesting, as if they don’t run the whole show. They are howling, alright, all the way to … the bank. Go directly to jail – Do not pass Go, and do not collect 200 billion dollars.
I’m in total agreement with you of course.
(williamrayson on 15.01.2010 at 12:49)
-First of all, no bank was/is lending didly squat anyway. They’re still using all the TARP money to pay bonuses, buy out competition, and save banks that hold their system of corporate opportunism together.
-Secondly, as I’ve said probably thousands of times now, on this blog, person to person, and other places, until no no one is making up to 700 times what everyone else combined together is making, even before taxes, which is ridiculous bull crap, they have absolutely no reason to complain about anything what so ever, even death, illness, or fire. Before Reagan, My vote for the worst president we ever had (without him there’d be no Bush,) the richest people in the U.S. (maybe the Rockefellers) made 100 times the rest, which was still entirely to much, but left room for them to be accountable to someone. Not anymore.
-It’s time to drop the system that keeps them in charge.
The Mondragón Cooperative Corporation is using a system that is successful in different workplaces across the globe. Even in China.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondrag%C3%B3n_Cooperative_Corporation
Don’t you wish YOU could work just one year and make enough in salary and bonuses you’d never have to work the rest of your life! It’s too bad these fat cats couldn’t face the lay offs, pay cuts and nickle and dime raises like us over paid union workers!