Friday, January 30, 2009

The Entitlement Society (CitiBoobs)

Apparently the geniuses at CitiBank understand the mood of America about as well as many of the local newsies around here understand the difference between "impeachment" and "conviction". They breathlessly announced on their late-afternoon news that Blago had been impeached! Sorry, sweethearts, he was impeached a while ago. He was convicted yesterday. We're too busy in the schools today teaching kids how to FEEL about things, and that they're SPECIAL, and we don't have time to teach civics any more. Sister Mary Clare, thank you for teaching me about the impeachment process back in 1961 at Saints Peter and Paul School.
If you were watching or following the vote in Springfield yesterday, you may have missed the hand-wringing from Wall Street about the president's rebuke of the robber barons who handed out billions in bonuses. For God's sake, can't Bartiromo and her ilk get you to understand that these people are ENTITLED to these bonuses??? They worked hard to earn these bonuses, and if they're not paid these bonuses, they'll go elsewhere and we'll LOSE their talent!!!
That was the argument put forth by the Captains of Money yesterday afternoon, and it's being repeated this morning. It might hold water, if finance was a segment of the economy that had one single example that's done an even lukewarm job for its shareholders in the past year. If the boys at JPMorgan-Chase don't get their bonuses, what are they going to do - jump ship to Citi??? Or WaMu??? Or Wachovia??? Let 'em go! These are the people who ran their own ship aground. Maybe Homecomings or Countrywide can hire them.
And how about those folks at Citi - who were astonished when the man who forgot to pay his taxes but got a sweet deal from the IRS and is now Secretary of the Treasury, Timmy boy, called them up and said "hey, that 50-million-dollar new corporate plane you're buying - that's a no-go". But Timmy, it's a Dassault, and it goes like hell! You should see the stuff that's on it!!! That sucker's a flyin' boardroom, for sure!!! Ol' Hardware Hank, your predecessor, wouldn'ta had a problem with it.
I'm not sure which is dumber - the Titans of Finance or the Controllers of the Taxpayers Pursestrings. The latter gave the former untold billions of our dollars, without a single string attached and without even having a method of actually finding out what they were doing with the money; or the former, which sees no problem in unloading 50 mil of that money on a fancy new airplane. No doubt ElRushbo will explain to us later today that the 50 mil would have gone to stimulate the economy, never mind that it would be the French economy.

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