You would be dancing, too, if you were given $300 billion
                                                 with no strings attached.  The game is MONOPOLY! 

    BANK CEOs STEAL MANY MILLION FOR THEMSELVES
   FROM AMERICAN TAXPAYERS!

                         Look at the pay and bonuses grabbed by CEOs at some of the banks getting billions
                 in public bailout money. 

                            Richard D. Fairbank, the chairman of Capital One Financial Corp., took a $1 million hit in
                      compensation after his company had a disappointing year, but still got $17 million in stock options.
                      Capital One got $3.56 billion in bailout money on Nov. 14.

_                           John A. Thain, chief executive of Merrill Lynch, topped all corporate bank bosses with $83 million
                      in earnings last year. Thain, a former chief operating officer for Goldman Sachs, came to Merrill Lynch
                      in December 2007, avoiding the blame for a year in which Merrill lost $7.8 billion. Since he began
                      work late in the year, he earned $57,692 in salary, a $15 million signing bonus and an additional $68 "
                      million in stock options.  Like Goldman, Merrill tapped taxpayers for $10 billion on Oct. 28.

                            At Bank of New York Mellon Corp., chief executive Robert P. Kelly's stipend for financial planning
                      services came to $66,748, on top of his $975,000 salary and $7.5 million bonus. His car and driver
                      cost $178,879. Kelly also received $846,000 in relocation expenses, including help selling his home
                      in Pittsburgh and purchasing one in Manhattan, the company said.

                          Goldman Sachs, paying as much as $233,000 for an executive's car and driver, told its shareholders
                       that financial counseling and chauffeurs were needed so executives would have more time to focus
                      on their jobs. If they can't focus on their jobs for a fraction of what they are paid, fire them!
                          (Source. )

                                                        
                         Banking Crooks, Like Insane Dictators, Must Be Stopped Early
                                         or They Will Take Everything!

                               With the nerve of an arrogant and manic pig, Paulson declared on December 19th
                    that he wants to give a new $350 Billion more to banks.  Congress had previously voted to let
                    the second half of the TARP $700 bailout be under the control of the new Administration. 
                    He seems not to have noticed that not one American consumer or homeowner has benefited
                    from the $330 given to bankers, so far.  They are hoarding the money or giving to themselves
                    as higher pay!  The economy would be a lot stronger if the US Government had just given
                    the $700 billion bailout, or $2300 to each American citizen on condition that they spend the money
                    within 3 months! 

                             Paulson says he's already given "his" share of the bailout away and now wants control
                    of the second half now!   "Financial market stability requires it", he declares.    Otherwise,
                     there may be a "significant disruption to our economy".  More FEAR TACTICS.  Just
                     what the economy does not need.  No wonder the DJI has lost nearly 10% since he made
                     these remarks.    He is holding the US Economy ransom.  Give me the money or I will
                     continue to scare the daylight out of it.

                             He is saying, in effect, that the first $350 billion of taxpayer money, was ineffective and now
                    the banks should be given more money.  But why should we think this additional money
                     will make any difference?  Like Bush, he always wrong.  The first gift to the bankers did not
                    work.  They did not lend the money.  Why should we think they will now!

                           Is he crazy?  Or does he know that Congress has been bought out by Big Banks and
                      this is a mere formality?    Did you note that the Democrats got most of Madoff's campaign
                     contributions.   Goldman Sachs executives gave a million to Hillary Clinton and Obama
                     in 2008.    However crazy or arrogant Paulson is.  either way, he is giving taxpayer money
                     to the very crooks that have caused the crisis.  He is giving it to them when they have
                     squandered the first $350 billion on executive bonuses, private air planes and buy-outs,
                     NOT extending much needed credit!   These are the very banks and CEOs that put their
                      own greed ahead of the interests of shareholders and made foolish home loans without
                      bothering to consider what would happen when the housing bubble broke!


                   Where Things Stand?  The Deck Is Stacked in Favor of The Banks/
                                                    What A Surprise!?

                    The US Treasury under Paulson is obliged under terms of the $700 billion rescue fund that
              Congress approved on Oct 3, to submit a report to Congress detailing how it plans to use the
               additional funds.  Congress will likely cave in.  After all, it is led by the spineless Nancy
               Pelosi ( "impeachment is off the table") and Harry, the weak, Reid (pronounced like "reed", an
               easily bent and twisted form of vegetation.).  The money automatically will become available
               unless both houses of Congress pass legislation blocking the funds within 15 days of receiving the
               administration's report.  And even then, the White Hoyse will cwerainly veto any Cingressional
               "no" vote on the second part of the bailout, thereby making it available.  Who created this round-about
               way of gettign around the opposition to the bailout?  Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed run the two
               houses of Congress/  So devious!  No wonder Americans also hate Congress!

                   House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., says the administration
                must allocate some of the new money for borrowers facing foreclosure, and impose more conditions
                to make sure banks actually use their rescue funds to increase lending.  He promises   "They're not going
                to get the (money) unless they get very serious about the foreclosure modifications and showing us
                how we're going to get some lending out of the banks." 

                                         MAKE THE BANKS GIVE THE MONEY BACK!

                        Paulson's and his cronies from Goldman Sachs, who now run the government's TARP program,
                have given the bailout money away with no strings.  Worse, the banks were not even obliged
                to extend more credit.  And still worse, they are not even required to declare what they have
                spent their money on!  Instead, the receiving banks have given much of the TARP money away
                to their top executives as bonuses!  For what?  To show an unbridled arrogance!   And to show
                that they run the show, not Congress!

               
                    Goldman Sachs Tower in Jersey City

                  Trading on Inside Information Is An Old Tradition at Goldman Sachs'

                      Trading on inside information, which is illegal, has made Goldman Sachs many hundreds
                 of millions over the years.  No exaggeration. They distribute most of it to their top executives. 
                 That way, the illegal activities of Goldman Sachs are kept silent.  Even so, every now and then, one
                 of them gets caught.  As a primary dealer in US Treasury securities, they frequently facilitate US
                 Government's financing.  As such, they are in a privileged position.  Their investment banking
                 division makes deals and has privileged information in the area of mergers and acquisitions.
                 They launch public offering and they offer investment advise to wealthy individuals,
                 universities and other institutions.  The opportunities to trade for their own account
                on inside information are enormous.  How can they not make billions?  They are also
                market makers in many of the securities of firms that come to them to buy another company
                out, or that seek them to make a public offering, or to raise other forms of financing. 
                And if these were not enough, they put out buy and sell recommendations for big clients
                and have set up the industries' largest Hedge Funds to profit from falling markets.

                       Should they be trusted? Are you kidding?  There are potential conflicts of interest
                 everywhere you look in these activities.  And, showing how greedy they are, with all these
                 existing advantages, rheir employees have frequently been found guilty of insider trading. 
                 And their own stock frequently shows key, well-informed insider buying (2006) and insider
                 selling (end of 2007 and early 2008)

                         Insider Buying at GS                Goldman Sachs 2006-2007


                            Insider Selling of GS stock     Gold Man Sachs 2008


                      Treasury Secretary Paulson, an ex CEO of Goldman Sachs, says that the bank is too
                 big to fail!  If anything, they are too big to safely be allowed to continue. 

                     Goldman Sachs was not to be trusted in 1970, when  the Penn Central Railroad
                 went bankrupt. Goldman Sachs had sold over $80 million in its commercial paper and
                 was sued because it had not been sufficiently forthright regarding the risks. (Source. )

                    In 1986,  "David Brown was convicted of passing inside information to Ivan Boesky on a takeover
                   deal.^[35] Robert Freeman, who was a senior Partner, the (GS) Head of Risk Arbitrage, and a protégé of
                   Robert Rubin and was also convicted of insider trading, with his own account and with the firms.^[36
                          (Source. )

                   In 2007, two Goldman traders, Michael Swenson and Josh Birnbaum,  part of Goldman's
                   structured products group in New York, made a profit of $4bn by "betting" on a collapse in the
                   sub-prime market, and shorting mortgage-related securities.   Paulson, as Treasury Secretary,
                   claimed until 2008 that the economy was basically sound!   (Source. )

                    In November 11, 2008, the Los Angeles Times reported that Goldman Sachs, which earned
                    $25 M from underwriting California bonds, had advised other clients to "short" those bonds. (Source. )

                      A US Treasury official in 2001, Peter Davis, pled guilty to giving a Goldman
                 Sachs employee, John Youngdahl, a lucrative heads-up, minutes before key news that
                 the US Treasury was going to stop selling 30-year bonds.  (Source. )  

                     In 2007, Eugene Plotkin, a bond analyst at Goldman, pled guilty to insider trading.
                 He recruited two workers at the plant where Business Week is printed to get advance
                 knowledge about the companies to be discussed each week.  (Source. ) 

                     Another Goldman Sachs employee, David Pajcin who was sentenced to 5 years
                 in prison in 2007 for insider trading, but then fled the country.  For 3 years he was fed tips
                 illegally from a man who served on a New Jersey Grand jury in Bristol Myers securities. ( Source. )
                 These last two Goldman Sachs employees are alleged to have made
                 $6.7 million from their illegal sales. (Source. ) One can only imagine how much money has made
                 because of its inside knowledge gained via its underwriting and institutional business.

                     The Paulson Credit Opportunities Find, a Goldman Sachs mortgage trading
                 firm. was up 410% as of August 2007.  The people who ran this firm had been appointed by the
                 Treasury Secretary.  How much did their inside track with Paulson, the Treasury Secretary
                 help.   "Paulson has been among the most aggressive hedge funds betting against the subprime
                 mortgage business, which caters to poorer borrowers with blemished credit records. As
                 delinquencies have increased and turmoil has spread across other parts of the credit market,
                 some hedge funds have done well, while others have collapsed." ( Source. ) 

                                           BILLIONS IN BONUSES FOR THE GREEDIEST CEOs!

                      Wall Street CEOs put pigs to shame.  Their bonuses are obscenely, contemptuously high.
                The regal world they live in is profoundly in conflict with a democratic society.  They are
                indirectly stealing money from those that cannot afford food, medicine or shelter.  On this
                Christmas day, they should be put in prison and made to listen to Dickens' A Christmas Carol. 
                They are the Scrooges of our age.  Dickens wrote:

                          "He was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping,
                         scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel has
                         ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster."

                      Regarding bonuses, in 2005, an observer wrote "Starting sometime after Labor Day and
                ending before Christmas, everybody in the financial industry is on their best, most obsequious
                behavior, hoping to curry the favor of those who divvy up the spoils. And what spoils there are
                this year—the 2005 bonus season looks to be Wall Street’s biggest haul in five years. Last year,
                the New York State Comptroller’s office estimated the average bonus on Wall Street to be a
                clean $100,600 (or $15.9 billion split among 158,000 employees). Early estimates of the 2005
                bonus pool reach as high as $19 billion. "  In 2005, Goldman Sachs set aside $9.25 BILLION for
                bonuses, or if distributed equally (which they definitely not) that would be $420,000 per employee.  
                (Source )

                        In 2007, Goldman Sachs recorded its highest ever revenue and earnings.  It paid its CEO
                  Lloyd C. Blankfein, $68.7 million - the most ever for a Wall Street C.E.O.  ( Source. )
                  In 2006, he received $53.4 million, including a clash bonus of $27.3 million. (Blankfein has
                  contributed at least $7000 to Democratic Party candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008.^[4] )

                 In 2007, the top five executives at Goldman received a total of $242 million. This year, Goldman's
                 seven top-paid executives will work for their base salaries of $600,000, with no stock or cash bonuses.

GOLDMAN SACHS  CEO HAS BEEN PAID  $150 MILLION  in BONUSES and PAY SINCE 2006.     Look at the expensive Hollywood teeth! CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein gave $7000 to Hillary Clinton.  Don't expect the Democrats to regulate CEO pay or limit bonuses.

THE PUBLIC NOW HATES WALL STREET   OUTRAGE AT OBSCENELY HIGH CEO PAY IS REACHING FEVER PITCH! "Some New York City politicians are outraged by these stupendous bonus payments at Goldman. “In a town where there is 42% poverty in the South Bronx, 30 % poverty in Harlem, 29% in Central Brooklyn; in a town where you still have homelessness and you have thousands of hungry children; for these greedy and profiteering businessmen to give themselves these kinds of unimaginable and unearned bonuses is a sin before God,?? said New York City Councilman Charles Barron.   Rev. Herbert Daughtry, pastor of The House of Lords church in Brooklyn, who often works on campaigns with Barron declared that the payments “borders on criminality in light of the pervasive poverty in New York City.?? Separately, another councilmember from Brooklyn, Letitia James, said: “These $54 million bonuses are excessive. They greatly exceed the amounts  paid to the lowest paid worker. It represents corporate greed at its worst. Compensation should be determined by an independent board. There must be a nexus between the highest paid worker and the lowest paid worker.    Source: http://www.blackstarnews.com/?c=121&a=3063

Disillusionment with Wall Street                                                              "As I was taught in junior high school, Wall Street is America’s capital source: the money raised               on Wall Street helps for companies and fuels their growth and expansion while they provide goods and               services to the people of the world. I was also taught that the markets were self-regulating and that supply               and demand was the operative principle. If nobody purchased your products or services, you went out of               business, innovated other solutions, penetrated other markets – and moved forward in a positive manner.                         "The reality … At the time, I did not even consider that the markets could be rigged or that the               market could be manipulated with disastrous consequences....  But what makes me really mad is …              Wall Street’s attitude that decent companies who (sic) are associated with problematical industries               can be artificially manipulated (and sold short) to the point where their survival is questionable...               (Consider the harm to a ) "company struggling to survive amid a catastrophe not of its making.               Employees dependent upon their paychecks, insurance and retirement benefits. All placed at risk so the               Wall Street Wizards who produce nothing can line their pockets. And I am not talking about the individual               investor … I am speaking about the middleman: the person who takes a chunk of change for buying and               selling stocks, bonds and commodities. Chaos and confusion are their friends as it maximizes both               buying and selling opportunities....These are the slimeballs that caused the current crisis with their               artificially engineered financial products which they assured everybody were of investment grade with               iron-clad risk management built in. They kept talking and collecting their bonuses right through the crash. "                     Source.   More comments.                     The man is correct.  Short selling is very destructive to Main Street.  And derivative vehicles                channels investment money into the biggest companies, encouraging monopolies.  And it causes                the tail to wag the dog.  Derivatives caused the crash in 1987. And leveraged short sale vehicles                are destroying the US economy now.  When I started TigerSoft in 1981, there were none of these                derivative vehicles and short selling was strictly limited.  Stock has to first be borrowed and all                short sales had to be done on up ticks or zero-plus ticks.  The distance Wall Street has fallen in                public esteem is directly related to its power over government.  De-regulation is wrong.   "Freedom                for the pike is death for the minnows".

                                                         ferraye.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html