Well But Of Course

Obviously, it was Barney Frank's fault.

No wait!! It was the Liberals' fault!!

No wait!! It was the CRA!!

No wait!! Wait!! ACORN!! Yeah, it was ACORN!!

Gotta love Barry (link in original): "Of course, now that the election is over, the usual parade of reality challenged nitwits won’t be interested in any hard data or professional analyses. The full 233 page report is available here."

Well Duh

Having a black guy as President is making rich old white guys nervous? Tell us something we didn't know, eh? Washington Post (07.04.10):

"(T)he Tea Party is essentially the reappearance of an old anti-government far right that has always been with us and accounts for about one-fifth of the country. The Times reported that Tea Party supporters 'tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45.' They are also more affluent and better educated than Americans as a whole. This is the populism of the privileged."

The Tea Party: Populism of the privileged

"And the poll suggested something that white Americans are reluctant to discuss: Part of the anger at President Obama among Tea Partiers does appear to be driven by racial concerns."

The Reagan Revolution

Charts and graphs from them damn commies at Campaign for America's Future.

What's with this fixation on so many damned facts? Ain't good for you, at all.

Keep Voting Republican, Folks

Look at the gap grow!

Half of America has 2.5% of the wealth

The top 10% of America has 70% of the wealth.

The top 1% has a third.

Ain't that free market something?

Dollars Taxes

Some stuff in last year's stimulus bill that probably will reduce your income tax. Those damned Democrats. AP (04.10.10), via Huffington:

"Credits (ed.: as in a credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in the taxes you'd otherwise have to pay) taxpayers may be eligible for include:

_Up to $8,000 for first-time homebuyers. The credit will be available through the end of April.

_Up to $2,500 for college expenses.

_Up to $1,500 for making energy-efficiency improvements to homes.

_For new vehicles purchased between Feb. 17-Dec. 31, 2009, the state and local taxes can be deducted.

_An expanded child tax credit providing $1,000 for each child under 17.

_The earned income tax credit now provides up to $5,657 to low-income families with at least three children.

Many workers have already received, through adjusted withholding in their paychecks, the 'Making Work Pay' credit of as much as $800 for couples and $400 for individuals. For those who haven't yet received the full amount due, they will get the additional money when they file."

The Associated Press: Obama advertises tax breaks ahead of Tax Day

Raising taxes? Why yes!! That too: "Obama wants to extend Bush's tax cuts, except for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making $250,000."

We can't tell you how sorry we are that someone making that kind of dough has to pay a little more in income tax. Life is just so UNFAIR!!

Boo Fucking Hoo

USAToday (04.07.10), via BalloonJuice:

"Fresh from raising taxes on upper-income Americans to help expand health insurance coverage, President Obama and Democratic lawmakers are targeting them again.

When Congress takes up Obama's proposed $3.8 trillion budget this year, it will include extending President George W. Bush's tax cuts for middle-income families enacted in 2001 and 2003.

Upper-income people would lose tax cuts in Obama plan

Tax cuts for individuals with income above $200,000 and couples above $250,000 would be eliminated."

Meaning the top marginal tax bracket goes from 35% back to 39.6%. Which is basically jack-shit when you're making that kind of dough.

Oh, and if you don't understand how marginal tax brackets work, don't fucking bother us with how "unfair" this is.

Have You Seen The Little Piggies?

Step right up and help yourselves, folks. Tax.com, via Kevin Drum:

"The incomes of the top 400 American households soared to a new record high in dollars and as a share of all income in 2007, while the income tax rates they paid fell to a record low, newly disclosed tax data show."

Tax Rates for Top 400 Earners Fall as Income Soars, IRS Data

"In 2007 the top 400 taxpayers had an average income of $344.8 million, up 31 percent from their average $263.3 million income in 2006, according to figures in a report that the IRS posted to its Web site without announcement that were discovered February 16."

At least something's trickling down. "Since 1992, the bottom 90 percent of Americans have seen their incomes rise by 13 percent in 2009 dollars, compared with an increase of 399 percent for the top 400."

Or are we just getting pissed on?

Naw! They wouldn't do that to us!!

A Little Help From My Friends

Just a little something before we go. Washington Post (11.10.08), via Big Picture:

"The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.

But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion."

A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks

Well Color Us Shocked

NYTimes (07.20.08), via Beat The Press:

"The credit crisis has exposed and worsened a dangerous and deepening divide in this country between a vast number of average borrowers and a fairly elite slice of corporations, banks and executives enriched by the mortgage mania.

Borrowers who are in trouble on their mortgages have seen their government move slowly — or not all — to help them. But banks and the executives who ran them are quickly deemed worthy of taxpayer bailouts.

Fair Game - Borrowers and Bankers - A Great Divide

"On the ground, this translates into millions of troubled borrowers, left to work through their problems with understaffed, sometimes adversarial loan servicing companies. If they get nowhere, they lose their homes."

"Taxpayers, meanwhile, are asked to stand by with money to inject into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage finance giants, should they need propping up if loan losses balloon."

What's so pathetic is that more than a few of these guys, these titans of industry, these captains of capitalism, are fucking morons.

And how many of them do you think are Republicans?

All Your Bribes Are Belong To Us

Cut a check and walk away? Helluva deal, if you ask us. NYTimes (04.09.08):

"In a major shift of policy, the Justice Department, once known for taking down giant corporations, including the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, has put off prosecuting more than 50 companies suspected of wrongdoing over the last three years.

Instead, many companies, from boutique outfits to immense corporations like American Express, have avoided the cost and stigma of defending themselves against criminal charges with a so-called deferred prosecution agreement, which allows the government to collect fines and appoint an outside monitor to impose internal reforms without going through a trial."

In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials

Generally what happens is the company agrees to admit it was naughty and pay a fine, and the Feds agree to dismiss all charges in a couple, three years. The deal is secret so no one knows. You get a friend of a friend appointed as a monitor, and you're done.

Could there be a problem with this? "Some lawyers suggest that companies may be willing to take more risks because they know that, if they are caught, the chances of getting a deferred prosecution are good. 'Some companies may bear the risk' of legally questionable business practices if they believe they can cut a deal to defer their prosecution indefinitely, [said Vikramaditya S. Khanna, law prof at U Michigan]."

Really? Oh come now!

At The Bear Stearns' Building This Morning

Ha, ha. Via Calculated Risk.

What, Me Worry?

Hey, Jimmy's money is already in the bank. What the hell does he care? Bloomberg (03.15.08):

"Bear Stearns Cos. Chairman James 'Jimmy' Cayne was playing in the North American Bridge Championship in Detroit over the past two days, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Cayne and a partner were placed fourth in a pair's event on March 13, the newspaper reported yesterday, citing the American Contract Bridge League's Web site."

Bear Stearns's Cayne Was Playing Bridge, WSJ Says

This isn't the first time he's been busy elsewhere.

Uppity Bastards

How dare they? LATimes (01.08.08), via ThinkProgress:

"Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business.

'We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed,' chamber President Tom Donohue said.

Chamber of Commerce vows to punish anti-business candidates

"The warning from the nation's largest trade association came against a background of mounting popular concern over the condition of the economy. A weak record of job creation, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, declining home values and other problems have all helped make the economy a major campaign issue."

Tom makes it clear: "'I'm concerned about anti-corporate and populist rhetoric from candidates for the presidency, members of Congress and the media,' he said. 'It suggests to us that we have to demonstrate who it is in this society that creates jobs, wealth and benefits -- and who it is that eats them.'"

Obviously, a number of you unpleasant ingrates have forgotten.

It's OK By Me

AP (12.17.07):

"President Bush on Monday tried to reassure an edgy public that the economy is 'pretty good' despite the dreary mix of a failing housing market, a national credit crunch and surging energy costs.

'There's definitely some storm clouds and concerns, but the underpinning is good,' Bush said at a Rotary Club meeting, an informal setting chosen to show the president engaged with local communities. 'We'll work our way through this period.'"

Bush Says US Economy Is Safe and Sound

OK by us, too. Well some of us. NYTimes (12.15.07):

"The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans, data in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows.

The poorest fifth of households had total income of $383.4 billion in 2005, while just the increase in income for the top 1 percent came to $524.8 billion, a figure 37 percent higher."

Report Says That the Rich Are Getting Richer Faster, Much Faster

"The total income of the top 1.1 million households was $1.8 trillion, or 18.1 percent of the total income of all Americans, up from 14.3 percent of all income in 2003. The total 2005 income of the three million individual Americans at the top was roughly equal to that of the bottom 166 million Americans, analysis of the report showed."

So how are you doing?

UPDATE: h/t to Kevin Drum for the link to this amazing graph ("an easy way to look at income distribution and how it has changed over the years").

Have you seen the little piggies?

It's Everywhere

Some folks never learn. The Big Shitpile visits California. Bloomberg (12.05.07):

"Orange County, California, bankrupted in 1994 by bad bets on interest rates, bought structured investment vehicles similar to those that caused a run on funds invested by local governments in Florida.

Twenty percent, or $460 million, of the county's $2.3 billion Extended Fund is invested in so-called SIVs that may face credit-rating cuts, said Treasurer Chriss Street.

Orange County Funds Hold SIV Debt on Moody's Review

"In all of its funds, the county holds a total of $837 million of SIV debt, including $152 million in its $3.5 billion of money-market funds that isn't under ratings review, said his spokesman, Keith Rodenhuis."

The problem? Very similar to Florida's, where "(m)uch of the debt...is worth less than 100 cents on the dollar and the rest is so troubled that its value can't be determined, according Chris Stavrakos, co-managing head of cash management for BlackRock Inc., the New York-based company hired to turn around the fund."

"'I don't think there are very many securities in this market we can liquidate at par,' Stavrakos said in an interview yesterday."

For sure, a good chunk of this crap (the stuff they can value) is worth less than what they paid for it. And a good chunk of this crap is so hosed no one really knows what it's worth.

And if you're a taxpayer, you shouldn't have to think too hard to guess who's going to be picking up the tab when all this shit finally tanks.

While you're thinking about that, there's this. Washington Post (12.05.07):

"During the hectic, closing weeks of this session of Congress, leaders of both parties say they are determined to pass legislation that would prevent 23 million middle-income Americans from being hit with a tax increase originally designed to target only the super-rich.

But chances are slim that Congress will find the $50 billion over 10 years needed to pay for that legislation, in large part because a proposed tax increase on Wall Street firms and their managers lacks enough support in the Senate."

Tax to Offset AMT Patch Appears Unlikely

"A sprawling, big-money lobbying campaign appears to have succeeded in preventing the proposed tax increase on hedge funds and private-equity firms."

If they don't get the patch approved, it's estimated there'd be "an average $2,000-per-family increase on 2007 income taxes". Problem is to be fiscally responsible, you'd want to at least offset the revenue decrease with an offsetting increase somewhere else. Like taxing some of the same fucks who made a ton of dough putting the Big Shitpile together.

But money talks. "Private-equity firms, whose multibillion-dollar deals have created a class of super-wealthy investors and taken many large corporations private, hired dozens of lobbyists and stepped up campaign contributions this year. They were retained to protect a special tax rate paid by investment firm managers on their income under a long-accepted interpretation of tax law."

Nice, eh?

Hold On Thar

Oh well, what the hell. Sure was fun while it lasted. LATimes (10.17.07):

"Securities regulators are said to be looking into $145 million in stock sales by Countywide Financial Corp. Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo, who ramped up his sales in the months before Countrywide's shares went into a tailspin."

SEC is said to be investigating Countrywide CEO's stock sales

The nub of the problem is the insider trading plan Angelo had. "Such plans are designed to shelter executives from insider-trading allegations by setting up in advance a schedule for the purchase or sale of company shares." Usually, you set it and leave it alone, but that's not what happened here.

Angelo first set his plan up back in Fall of 2006, "just as the subprime crisis was getting under way. That plan allowed him to sell 350,000 Countrywide shares per month. Less than two months later, he adopted a second plan, allowing him to sell an additional 115,000 shares. He revised the second plan less than two months later to double the number of shares sold. By February, Mozilo was unloading 580,000 Countrywide shares each month."

Therein, as they say, lies the rub.

Have You Seen The Little Piggies?

Yeah and Richard says God spoke to him and told him to deny everything. We're thinking it wasn't God as much as his lawyers. AP (10.05.07), via FirstDraft:

"Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors' expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter's senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.

She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as 'underage males.'"

Scandal Brewing at Oral Roberts U.

Fortuitousness

Wow. Lucky guy, huh. LATimes (09.29.07):

"As the mortgage industry swooned in late 2006 and 2007, Countrywide Financial Corp. Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo cashed in stock options valued at $138 million -- vastly expanding his wealth even as his shareholders watched their stock shrink in value.

Company executives say Mozilo did nothing wrong and that the transactions were made under trading plans that specified how many shares would be sold each month."

Countrywide CEO sold big as stock dropped

"Similar trading plans have been used by hundreds of executives since they were greenlighted by federal regulators in 2000 as a means of fending off accusations of insider trading."

Usually, you sign on to a plan and stick with it, through thick and thin. Not Angelo. "(H)e shifted course twice in late 2006 and early 2007, according to regulatory filings, amid mounting signs of trouble in the housing and mortgage industries."

"Mozilo adopted a new trading plan, added a second and then revised it, allowing him to unload hundreds of thousands of additional shares before Countrywide stock went into a tailspin."

A Countrywide representative said all the stock sales were "'in accordance with company policy'", and that the "'plans were put into place in consultation with Mr. Mozilo's financial advisor, without regard to any non-public or market information'."

None, I tell you. Absolutely none.

Besides. Angelo ain't no chump.

Cleaning A Rich Guy's Pool

Working for George, Sr., at $9.00 an hour. AP (09.24.07), via AmericaBlog:

"An enduring American figure, the pool boy has long stood for one lowly half of the nation's class gulf. When the pool owner happens to have been the most powerful man on the planet, and the pool boy happens to be one of the planet's great despisers of power, the metaphor explodes into 1,000 points of light.

'If every American had to pool-boy for these people for a day, you'd have a revolution on your hands,' is how he sees things."

The former president's pool boy

What he'd say if he ever actually got a chance to talk to the ex-Prez? "'What do you say? 'Thanks for School of the Americas, and Iran-Contra, and NAFTA, and shipping all those jobs overseas, and arming Saddam, and funding the Taliban?' What do you say -- 'You're a jerk?'"

"There's nothing that can be put into a sentence that would capture the lives these people have taken, and the way of life that's been taken.'"

Have You Seen The Little Piggies?

What goes on in these peoples' minds? Bloomberg (05.24.07):

"Conrad Black, as chairman of Hollinger International Inc., lived a lifestyle so lavish that he needed two Park Avenue apartments -- one for his servants.

His wife, Barbara Amiel Black, had five separate closets for her evening gowns, $500 shoes and $7,000 handbags in their London townhouse."

Black's Gems, Servants on Park Avenue May Sour Jurors

"His chauffeur had a corporate American Express card he used to shop for the couple."

"Black, 62, and three co-defendants are charged with stealing $60 million from Hollinger. Prosecutors say the former chief executive officer treated the company as his personal 'piggy bank' from 1997 to 2003."

Purchases included "$2.6 million on a 26-carat diamond ring", and $604,000 for an "'antique pearl and diamond bow brooch.'" His wife says she "'found [she] really liked the stuff", and that after she married Conrad, "she 'vaulted into circles where, for some people, jewelry is a defining attribute, rather like your intelligence or the number of residences you have.'" Intelligence or number of residences?

Conrad also allegedly "billed Hollinger $1.4 million from 1997 to 2003 to pay the staff of his four homes, including an 11-bedroom townhouse in London, a Toronto mansion on 12 acres, an ocean-front estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and the Manhattan apartments."

Conrad's wife also spent about $2,000 for a custom-made briefcase. Guy at the briefcase store didn't see what the fuss was. "'If you wear a $2,000 or $3,000 suit, it just wouldn't look right if you were carrying a $350 briefcase, or even an $800 one.'"

The prosecutor in this case is Patrick Fitzgerald, late of the Scooter Libby matter. Patrick's dad "was a doorman at 14 East 75th St., 10 blocks north of Black's home." Patrick also worked as a doorman one summer, so he's seen a lot of guys like Conrad.

We bet Patrick's got a briefcase. We bet it cost him a hell of a lot less than $2,000.

A little perspective. As of 2005, $2,000 is more than the average annual income of a person living in Paraguay, Honduras, Bolivia or Nicaragua.