Goldman Sachs Haz a Sad.

Massive tears were shed on Wall Street, on bonus day, as many lower tier traders found their bonus checks weren't what they were expecting.

Goldman's profits fell in 2011 by as much as (Oh the tragedy!) 58% and that means that those that actually do the work found that they lost 21% in bonus and compensation packages.

Reports are creeping out that bonus day wasn't all fun and games at America's most iconic investment bank. With some poor first-year analysts taking home a measly $40,000 in bonuses, other higher-ups  found they were expected to be satisfied with a crummy $56,000.

But that isn't the worst of it.

In fact, some Goldman Sachs bankers and traders learned they left empty handed on bonus day, and at the same time found out that they still made too much to qualify for food stamps.

Hit hard by the same shrinking economy that they helped create- even Morgan Stanley, another major player in the investment bank gambling casino are capping cash bonuses at $125,000, and Credit Suisse is all but putting an end to automatic pay hikes.

Though many Goldman employees won't be able to buy that second vacation home this year- others are finding themselves out of a job, and are quickly joining the 99%. In total more than 200,000 employees have been shed in order to make sure those at the very top are well compensated for running their companies into the ground.

Heart-breaking -- this is just heart-breaking.

Doesn't this tragic story just pull at your heart-strings?

Call Congress. Call the Whitehouse and demand....yes, demand that Congress immediately pass the Emergency Bonus Bailout Act.

We must preserve our nations honor and defend crony capitalism at any cost.


Maybe all of those poor under-paid, former fat cats will see the light and join the Occupy movement they mocked just a few short months ago- you know, the ones sipping champagne and toasting the occupiers from their lofty offices.

It seems the 99% is growing faster than Goldman can steal the wealth.

Welcome former 1%'ers.......Welcome.

Love, the Occupy movement.

Newt's Win Causes Solar Storm

A powerful solar eruption is expected to blast a stream of charged particles past Earth on Tuesday, as the strongest radiation storm since 2005 rages on the sun. This comes on the heels of Newt Gingrich's win in South Carolina.

Is this just a coincidence?


NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory caught an extreme ultraviolet flash from a huge eruption on the sun Sunday night.

The solar flare spewed from sunspot 1402, a region of the sun that has become agitated lately, which is similar to the recent agitation erupting from the Republican Party who can't stand Newt, but are stuck with him just the same. (be careful what you wish for)

Several NASA satellites, including the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the Solar Heliospheric Observatory and the STEREO spacecraft, observed the massive sun storm- right after Newt's big win. 

Scientists are equating the strength of the sunspot with the same blinding brilliance emanating from the hair of the third Mrs.Gingrich, Callista, but could not speculate as to this bizarre phenomenon being the cause of the solar agitation, although they warned looking directly at Mrs. Gingrich's hair without eye protection could cause temporary blindness.

A barrage of charged particles were triggered by the outburst from Gingrich when he accused President Obama of being "The Food Stamp President." These particles are expected to hit Earth at around 9 a.m. ET Tuesday, and could wipe out the magnetic strips on EBT cards rendering them unusable.

Scientists call these electromagnetic bursts from Gingrich, "coronal mass ejections of the bloviating kind," and can produce potentially harmful geomagnetic storms, and cause harmful side effects on the American psyche with symptoms ranging from mild depression to bursts of outrage where victims throw objects at their television screens. Pet owners are advised to keep pets indoors during this time.

A preliminary inspection of SOHO/STEREO imagery suggests that eruptions will deliver a strong glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 24-25. The "Gingrich" flare was rated an M9-class eruption, which is most harmful to those in the M-(iddle) class-class.

The sun's activity waxes and wanes on an 11-year cycle, which is strikingly similar to the duration of Gingrich's marriage vows. 

Some have approximated Gingrich's ego the size of Jupiter the gas planet, but scientists noticed it appeared to be expanding at an alarming rate, right after he announced his presidential candidacy.



"Twinkle, twinkle, little Newt."



Some believe his expansion could reach the size of a super nova-a stellar explosion that throws large clouds of gas and dust into space.

Super novas blaze so brightly that they can be seen at distances of up to 10 billion light years.

After exploding the star collapses in on itself becoming what is called a "white dwarf," a pale, dim, dull little star.


Some have categorized the Newt Effect as nothing more than a burst of hot air, while others see it as a dangerous anomaly.

One scientist remarked," The Newt Effect is like nothing we have ever encountered before, it could reach a critical mass sometime around November of this year."




 Only time will tell.


Maybe if we just ignore it..



it will go away, like a bad dream



you'd rather forget.





Let's hope so for our sake.






ickenittle

Catholic Smack Down



"Shut up already!"


More than 40 national Catholic leaders and prominent theologians at universities across the country have just released a letter to "our fellow Catholics" Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum to stop vilifying poor people, and using racial stereotypes while on the campaign trail.

As Catholic leaders who recognize that the moral scandals of racism and poverty remain a blemish on the American soul, we challenge our fellow Catholics Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum to stop perpetuating ugly racial stereotypes on the campaign trail. Mr. Gingrich has frequently attacked President Obama as a “food stamp president” and claimed that African Americans are content to collect welfare benefits rather than pursue employment. Campaigning in Iowa, Mr. Santorum remarked: “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.” Labeling our nation’s first African-American president with a title that evokes the past myth of “welfare queens” and inflaming other racist caricatures is irresponsible, immoral and unworthy of political leaders.

Some presidential candidates now courting “values voters” seem to have forgotten that defending human life and dignity does not stop with protecting the unborn. We remind Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum that Catholic bishops describe racism as an “intrinsic evil” and consistently defend vital government programs such as food stamps and unemployment benefits that help struggling Americans. At a time when nearly 1 in 6 Americans live in poverty, charities and the free market alone can’t address the urgent needs of our most vulnerable neighbors. And while jobseekers outnumber job openings 4-to-1, suggesting that the unemployed would rather collect benefits than work is misleading and insulting.

The racism, bigotry, and pure hate on display during the Republican presidential debates have been quite a spectacle. But should this be any surprise, coming as it does from the only political party in the entire western world which is a proponent of torture? The party that’s pro-war, pro-death penalty and anti-universal health care? The party that has acted across the country to deprive 10s of millions of Americans of their right to vote? The party which would take the common wealth of the nation and hand it over to a select few? Since this party has absolutely nothing to offer Americans of ordinary means and influence (sorry, being nominally anti-abortion hardly qualifies as being pro-life), the Republican Party can only appeal to the fearful, the ignorant and the haters.

The party is a disgrace to itself and to the country.

Amen to that

ickenittle

Going Backward is not Going Forward

If everything is improving in America by the so-called "recovery" then why are average Americans (99%'ers) still living like they are in a recession?

A growing number of Americans are not only not saving for the future but are borrowing against it. In this faux recovery, we see American workers borrowing against retirement accounts as if they are the new version of equity lines of credit.

Just as Americans used to borrow against the value of their homes before the property crash, now many are taking out loans from their 401(k) retirement savings plans.

On top of that-more people today are using credit cards just to live, paying mortgages, utility bills, food and medical expenses. Is this how a "recovery" is supposed to work?

At the same time, college students are borrowing twice as much as they did a decade ago when adjusted for inflation, according to the College Board, and Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards.


Household borrowing on cards, car loans, student loans and other installment debt jumped almost 10 percent from October to November, according to the Federal Reserve, its biggest jump in a decade.
Welcomed by some as a sign of confidence in the economic recovery, others worried it was really a reflection of desperation.

But why-- if we are in a recovery would people still feel so desperate? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to read between the lines offered by main stream media to know that the so-called recovery is just another big ass lie.

Since so many people still can't fathom the fact that they are so broke, they are resorting to credit card use to live day to day, and personal savings are now lower than they were in 2007- before the crash, down to a pathetic 3.5%

Loans taken from retirement savings accounts jumped 20 percent last year across all demographics, according to a survey to be published in March. Among lower earners they leapt by as much as 60 percent. The vast majority of borrowers, need the money for essential expenses like bills, car repairs and college tuition.

The non-profit Employee Benefit Research Institutes (EBRI) annual retirement confidence survey hit a new low in 2011 with 27 percent of workers saying they're "not at all confident" they'll have enough for a comfortable retirement. Almost 15 percent expect to work until at least the age of 70, up from 11 percent in 2006.

In another sign of Americans struggling to make ends meet, EBRI found that more than 20 percent of those aged 50 or older changed their medical prescriptions to save money and almost as many had skipped or postponed doctor appointments for the same reason. Almost 28 percent reported having difficulty paying their monthly bills.

It’s quite amusing when articles say the economy is going through a modest recovery. Sure people aren’t getting laid off in droves, but everyone knows that there is no actual recovery and it appears as if the economy is at great risk. House prices continue to tumble, and foreclosures are spiking once again. Wages are low and millions are beginning to lose unemployment benefits. America has vastly inferior social systems to help people in need. And the majority of the nation’s wealth has been hoarded and locked up by less than one percent of the population. The increase in foreclosures alone could create a new recession this year, let alone Europe and other factors.

Is this the American exceptionalism Republicans crow about?

The low interest rate policy of the Fed discourages saving. Who would want to put money in a bank at a 0.25% rate? Shorter term savings rates need to be closer to the inflation rates to encourage any real build in bank deposits. The policy forces investing in riskier assets so the savings rate will be lower.

And this sad fact was engineered on purpose to drive up the stock market where the majority of gamblers are the 1% Wall Street trickle - up tycoons. When the Federal Reserve decides to turn off the interest rate faucet for savers in order to enrich the crooks on Wall Street- you know America is operating more like a gambling casino economy than a serious economy.

The money you used to earn from saving has been deliberately stolen to keep those that live off of capital gains happily insulated from any economic woes, all the while seniors living on fixed incomes, who planned their retirements by investing in low risk savings plans are finding themselves forced to live off their puny Social Security checks alone. And Republicans like Newt and Romney have the nerve to intimate these folks are envious.

Mitt Romney and the rest of the GOP super rich are now calling class war the war of envy. In his let them eat cake moment, Romney becomes the mouth piece for the 1%, who see nothing morally wrong with a corrupt system so deregulated that what was a crime yesterday has become legal today.

"It may not be moral-- but it isn't illegal " seems to be the mantra of the GOP.

But it isn't just republicans who have been bitten by the greed bug-- the fact is both sides of our two party mockery are guilty of political corruption. We truly have the best government money can buy. From 2004 to 2010 members of Congress have seen their net worth grow 15% while the average American saw theirs fall 8% . The fact that members of Congress presided over the Wall Street plundering of the middle class and income inequality never before seen in the history of the U.S. really goes to show we have been hijacked by the plutocrats.

The rich hired by the super-rich to protect the interests of the mega-rich

Does it come as any real surprise that these folks can't relate to the plight of the 99% ? All they offer is empty slogans and insults to the real hardship average Americans suffer. It's no wonder Congress now boats a 1% approval rating.

And Newt and Mitt say the war on the middle class is really the other way around.

Welcome to Orwell’s 1984 where perception and reality are not related.

But what can you expect from a serial wife swapper, and corporate vulture.


Plutocracy rocks if you are a billionaire.


ickenittle

Dollar Store Nation

Don't you wish this is how the economy looked?

With so many people subsisting on food stamps these days, (46,220,000) it's no wonder that businesses that accept EBT cards are doing much better than before.

Who says government can't create jobs.

Since getting people in the door is the number one objective of a retail business, clever retailers have come up with all sorts of giveaways and gimmicks like "buy one- get one free" as one way to entice customers. Having what the customer needs is another, and since so many people are buying food with help from uncle Sam, more retailers are accepting EBT cards than ever before.

Everywhere you look you are starting to see signs posted of “EBT accepted here” meaning those with food assistance can use their debit cards in the stated location.  Food stamps now labeled “SNAP” are typically the last rung on the economic ladder for millions of Americans.  With the latest round of information we see that we are in record territory for those receiving food assistance.

How is it that we supposedly exited the recession in the summer of 2009 yet continue to expand the number of Americans on food stamps?





Dollar store stock might become the new Microsoft

 With food stamps on the rise, so too are business expansions that accommodate the EBT market. Locations like Family Dollar are up over 23 percent in the last year even though the overall stock market was flat for 2011.  This is why you are seeing EBT signs popping up everywhere.  These are locations that will accept the Electronic Benefit Transfer debit cards.


With so many people qualifying for food stamps, many republican controlled states are coming up with some mean spirited ways to punish people for being poor. They see the increase in food stamp participation as yet more evidence that America has become a nanny state, and poor people are just gaming the system. Rather than address the problem of a terrible economy, these republicans are raising the bar to make it impossible to qualify. Some are requiring drug testing applicants, and in Pennsylvania's case, means testing - where people applying for EB cards can't have more than $2000 worth of "assets".

And that includes a car. So unless you are driving a complete junker, and have no savings for emergencies, you might be one of the lucky ones to be granted help with food assistance, otherwise you are considered too wealthy- so tough luck buddy.

The asset test under consideration would bar anyone under 60 from receiving food stamps if they have more than $2,000 in savings or assets subject to the rule. The limit would be $3,250 for households with someone who is over 60 or disabled.

Currently, Pennsylvanians can get food stamps if they make 160 percent or less of the federal poverty level - or about $35,300 for a family of four - which puts it in the middle of the pack of states in generosity.
Since the December 2007 official start of the recession, the number of enrollees in what is formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has grown about 50 percent in Pennsylvania.

And Republican Gov. Tom Corbett intends to nip this entitlement party in the bud. Stating the reason behind the assault on being, the level of dependence being unsustainable over the long term. Which means Pennsylvania is running short of cash, and the only way to fix the mess is to punish the poor and lower taxes on the rich.

So if you are a senior citizen living in Pennsylvania and were saving for that funeral and burial plot, well, better scratch that idea because you have too much money. But don't expect Pennsylvania to chip in for your burial, because that's not the way the free market works.

Could be worse- just ask Cook County.


Republicans apply the same tired reasoning behind every inhumane action they take against people who have hit hard times, all under the same tired talking point of stopping waste, fraud and abuse.


They should know about those traits - that's how they get elected.

 Compassionate cconservatism has a new definition, it means,

"Gotta kick em while they're down- before they get back up again."

ickenittle

Did Little Debbie Kill Twinkie?

You know America is in decline when a much loved snack-cake icon is poised to crumble -- especially when it's best loved creation is famously known for,

" Tingling taste buds for more than 80 years. "

Hostess, the maker of Twinkies, Ding-Dongs, and Wonder Bread is filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Citing the high cost (don't call it inflation) of ingredients like refined white sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, vegetable shortening, artificial flavors and colors, and processed flour, as one of the reasons they are $860 million in the (donut) hole.
.
Even after restructuring in 2004, and investing, and borrowing from private equity firms and hedge funds, the legendary Hostess is still struggling to scape up enough dough to pay vendors.

Though Hostess won't admit it, some sources are blaming a younger, more popular "other woman" as being behind Hostess's decline. Little Debbie snack cakes offer a similar product for a lot less cash, making it a popular staple for Walmart shoppers looking for a good deal.





The "other" Twinkie

 Why Debbie, and not Twinkie?

 The Little Debbie brand has become number one for two reasons: quality and value. McKee Foods uses secret recipes and the highest-quality ingredients, thereby improving the taste of the snack cakes. The snack cakes are also sold at a reasonable price. In fact, Little Debbie products on average sell for half that of other leading brands. That's due to manufacturing efficiencies the company has developed over decades of baking experience.

Little Debbie has sold more than 157 billion Little Debbie snacks since the brand became available in stores in 1960. If you lined up all those snacks, that would cover more than 9.9 million miles — enough to circle the Earth almost 400 times! That's also enough snack cakes to stretch to the moon and back over 41 times!


Maybe the decline of Twinkies is due to some of that ' free-market wisdom' we hear so much about, where, the market decides winners and losers in the capitalism crap shoot.

But maybe there's something more devious.



They weren't bigger back then,
our hands were smaller.



Could the decline of Hostess have anything to do with some of  those  investments, and loans provided by some of those same private equity firms and hedge funds, responsible for sinking the economy?

Nah...can't be those same predatory financial wizards who gambled and lost everyone's pension funds.

It must be some other reason because things like that

 just don't happen in America.


ickenittle

(Blood) Bank of America

The definition of a Zombie:



Some Zombies' take
longer to die.

 Zombie  is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means, such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hynotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli. Since the late 19th century, zombies have acquired notable popularity, especially in North American and European folklore.

Zombie Bank-is a financial institution that has an economic net worth less than zero but continues to operate because its ability to repay its debts is shored up by implicit or explicit government credit support.

Sometimes, when an organism becomes so destructive that it threatens to wipe out all other organisms, extinction could be seen as a good thing  ( small pox comes to mind )
The same thing goes for zombie banks, especially the most dangerous of all the zombie banks -- the systematically risky Vampyroteuthis infernalis bankofamericanis  translated literally means vampire squid bank from hell.

With their long velar filaments deployed, the Vampire Squid Bank has been observed drifting along in the deep, black financial currents. If the filaments contact an entity (such as a wide-eyed home-buyer), or if vibrations impinge upon it, the creature investigates with rapid acrobatic movements approving loans, where unsuspecting victims sign on the dotted line just prior to slaying. These monsters are capable of closing predatory loans at speeds equivalent to two body lengths per second, with an acceleration time of five seconds.

With a down-grade under its belt, and its stock prices sinking into the murky depths, Bank of America is once again trying to raise capital by gouging its customers. This time however, they are targeting small business accounts by cutting lines of credit and forcing many to pay off their balances within an impossible time frame.

With so many small business customers nearly bled dry, the now starving beast is attempting to extract the last drops of liquidity small business customers have left in their parched accounts.To feed it's insatiable appetite the too-big-to-fail predator is offering a one time option of paying all your owed blood money in the form of one big payoff clot, or pay later, and longer, at a higher rate...... one drop at a time.

This new blood letting payment plan comes complete with a 12% interest hike and expensive annual draining.

Anemic business owners complain that B of A's credit squeeze is abrupt and could strain their small companies and even put them out of business. The credit cutoff is coming at a time when the economy can't seem to catch a break, and bucks what the financial industry says is a new trend of easing standards on business loans.

In one example, one customer was told in a letter that they had one month to pay the $96,000 debt to avoid the higher interest rate.

One such customer, Babak Zahabizadeh, was told in a letter that the $96,000 debt carried by his Burbank messenger service must be repaid Jan. 25. A loan officer offered multiple alternatives over the phone that Zahabizadeh called unaffordable, including paying off the debt at 12% interest over two years. That's about $4,500 a month, nearly 10 times his current interest-only payment.

Capping credit lines on small business owners is the latest assault on customers from CEO Brian (Squidman) Moynihan, who so infuriated debit card users with his $5 fee that he was forced to change his strategy. This time around it's the veins of small business owners being opened for draining - by those long slender tentacles.





A Bank of America spokes-squid said a "very small percentage" of small-business customers have been affected by the changes. When pressed for actual numbers of how many businesses would be bankrupted, by the new rule, the slippery spokes-squid released a cloud of black ink and retreated back into its grotto.


Sometimes extinction is a good thing.



ickenittle

Newt the Magician



"Where's Sarah?"

 Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't.

The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because making something disappear isn't enough; you have to bring it back. That's why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call "The Prestige"

When your floundering campaign for the White House stalls, and your poll numbers are sinking, you might need that third act to save you by pulling a Sarah Palin out of your hat.

Newt Gingrich said that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would be among the candidates that he would consider when picking a potential running mate, adding that the former GOP vice presidential nominee would be an ideal candidate for Secretary of Energy.

Gingrich, speaking during a conference call with conservative voters hosted by Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition, was asked by one of the attendees whether he would consider Palin as a running mate.

"She is certainly one of the people you would look at. I am a great admirer of hers and she was a remarkable reform governor of Alaska, she’s somebody who I think brings a great deal to the possibility of helping in government and that would be one of the possibilities," Gingrich said

Palin might be ideal for a position in his Cabinet.

"There are also some very important Cabinet positions that she could fill very, very well," Gingrich said. "I can’t imagine anybody who would do a better job of driving us to an energy solution than Gov. Palin, for example. Tell her that she would certainly be on the list of one of the people we would consider."

Palin teased us for months with the frightening possibility of running for the presidency before ultimately (after cashing in ) announcing to stay out of the GOP race.

And a grateful America breathed a sigh of relief.

While he's at it, Gingrich might also like to consider some other viable candidates to join him in the clown car. Maybe Donald Trump would be a good choice for Secretary of Commerce, although putting him in charge of the Department of Grifting and Strategic Defaulting might be more suitable.

And Rick Perry for Secretary of Education, since he graduated from the 8th grade, and has a Texas accent. And Rick Santorum would be a great choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services, since he's just 'dripping with the milk of human kindness'.

That would leave Michelle Bachmann as Secretary of the State, since she's so much like Margaret Thatcher (or is it Ronald Reagan? )

Just when we thought it was safe to turn on the TV again, Newt Gingrich reminds us that at least one two-bit grifter's fifteen minutes might not be over - just yet.

Thanks Newt.

ickenittle