Revolution Anyone?

Warbucks "Last week Barclays paid $1.75 billion to buy Lehman’s North American investment banking and capital markets business. It emerged over the weekend that Barclays had agreed to pay $2.5 billion in bonuses to Lehman bankers in the United States in a move that has angered stricken staff in London."  London Times

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So…..  While we have been told by the future tumbril riders (Paulson et al) that we all should agree to cough up 700 billion dollars to bail out Wall Street, the British bank, Barclays made a deal to pay off the people who wrecked Lehman Brothers so that they won’t suffer the consequences of their own greed and stupidity….

I never really appreciated before what this country and Britain as well, evidently, have become.  pl

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4799674.ece

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44 Responses to Revolution Anyone?

  1. Stormcrow says:

    Just about everybody I know of who lived through the dotbomb crash saw this same sort of behavior. Many, many times.
    It lost its ability to surprise me half a dozen years ago.

  2. Indeed. Sign me up, sir!
    For what it’s worth, this online petition against the bailout has more than 10,000 signatures so far. Link: http://www.petitiononline.com/bailout/petition.html
    I signed it.

  3. J says:

    Colonel,
    It is now evident that the Bush-Cheney-Chertoff-Paulson ‘Cabal’ has been preparing for this for a number of months, namely the possiblity of revolution by the people against what has become our crooked White House and certain of their co-conspirator Crooks in the Congress as well as their co-Crooks in the Fed and on Wall Street. They (chertoff with a lower case ‘c’) has instituted the use of surveillance satellites upon our nation’s citizenry. Also it has been disclosed in the press that portions of our military under the auspices of NORTHCOM are prepping to turn the broadsword of war inward upon our citizenry if/when ordered to do so by our Crooked White House. Remember that Bush has by his ‘personal fiat’ declared that HE IS ‘all imperial power’ and can declare anybody he so desires as an ‘enemy of the state’ including our fellow Americans. Under Bush/Chertoff/DHS we no longer have the protections afforded by our Constitution, and Posse Comitatus, well , that one Bush/Chertoff shredded it some time back. And Chertoff/DHS/NORTCOM are prepared at the drop of a hat to institute ‘martial law’ if/when the big Kahuna potentate Mr. B says so.
    See Army Times: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09/army_homeland_090708w/
    Brigade ‘homeland tours’ start Oct. 1
    …………They may be called upon to help with CIVIL UNREST and CROWD CONTROL or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack. ……..The 1st BCT’s soldiers also will learn how to use “the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded,” 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue UNRULY or dangerous individuals without killing them.
    The broadsword of war, Bush/Chertoff/NORTHCOM appear to be prepared to turn inwards upon our citizenry.

  4. Mike Martin, Yorktown, VA says:

    Pat, the thought came to me late Friday that The Great Financial Bailout of 2008 to prevent economic collapse comes to us from the same administration that once frightened us so well with the threat of what Saddam Hussein could do to us with his WMD.
    So much for bare-knuckle, market forces driven conservative capitalism, eh?

  5. WP says:

    I thought Lehman was in bankruptcy. It seems to me that the bonus money would belong to the bankruptcy estate. How can the management keep the creditor’s money and not get charged with theft?

  6. Bill says:

    I hope that Lowes and Home Depot won’t be affected by all this–we’ll need to go there to buy our torches and pitchforks.

  7. Dave of Maryland says:

    In a revolution, those who have not governed well are replaced by those who cannot govern at all. The only exception is when a colony throws off its master. We did that a long time ago. Now where did I leave that cabal of colonels….

  8. Ed Webb says:

    Revolution? Sadly, no. The masses are too dazed by infotaintment to really grasp what is being done to them. Indeed, many will vote for more of the same punishment at every opportunity. Moreover, no-one’s selling a credible revolutionary alternative to the present system these days apart from the Islamists, and that’s not a revolution I think likely or desirable in the US or Europe.

  9. WP says:

    Here is the Lehman bonus sale document
    http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/dealbook/lehmanSALE.pdf
    It is an interesting read that shows how the guys that led the world into this debacle get taken care of.

  10. Murph says:

    Colonel,
    Does anyone really believe that Barclays is paying the $2.5 Billion out of the goodness of their heart, or, as part of some Trilateral conspiracy ?
    It’s obvious why they’re paying the $2.5 Billion – it’s to make sure the people who can make the deals, and make their investment, stay on board to make it happen. They would not be paying this amount if they did not believe they would profit from the expense.

  11. David W. says:

    First thought: Fix him up with a monocle and a top hat and tails, and ‘Hanky Panky’ is a dead ringer for Daddy Warbucks, or the Monopoly caricature.
    Second thought: This is exactly the type of scenario that the unnamed Bushco operative taunted us with (paraphrased): ‘We are history’s actors. We act, and you react.’
    Third thought: How is the proposed plan not taxation without representation? Many commentators are already calling this proposal unconstitutional.
    Final thought (for tonight): We are a long way from revolution when the citizens of this country are too stupified to even take to the streets in protest. (150 years of anti-union rhetoric, and the recent vilification of France have put that to rest, or so ‘they’ hope)
    Protest is the key, by any means necessary–do not go gentle into that good night!

  12. greg0 says:

    I’m not surprised that the privileged elite expects handsome rewards regardless of performance. The latest Democratic counter proposals seem reasonable but we haven’t yet heard the screams of indignation from the other side yet.
    Here is a bit of Richard Read’s reporting: “U.S. taxpayers will live for years with the costs of bailouts in the making now. As a result, younger Americans are less likely to attain their parents’ living standards.”
    Makes me think the true revolution is in the near future with the young ones.

  13. Curious says:

    Here we go… right as predicted… (seriously, how else it supposes to go with injecting $1T new money into the system?)
    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/09/quelle-surprise-traders-say-dollar-may.html
    Traders Say Dollar May Be “Crushed” By Bailout Plan
    Our mantra of late has been that the serial bailout plans from the Treasury and Fed will undermine the US’s AAA rating and exact a considerable toll on the dollar. Indeed, Liam Halligan tells us in the Telegraph today that “Default by the US government is no longer unthinkable.”
    Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s plan to end the rout in U.S. financial markets may derail the dollar’s three-month rally as investors weigh the costs of the rescue.
    The combination of spending $700 billion on soured mortgage-related assets and providing $400 billion to guarantee money-market mutual funds will boost U.S. borrowing as much as $1 trillion, according to Barclays Capital interest-rate strategist Michael Pond in New York. While the rescue may restore investor confidence to battered financial markets, traders will again focus on the twin budget and current-account deficits and negative real U.S. interest rates.
    “As we get to the other side of this, the dollar will get crushed,” said John Taylor, chairman of New York-based International Foreign Exchange Concepts Inc., the world’s biggest currency hedge-fund firm, which manages about $15 billion.
    —————–
    get ready for massive nose bleeder inflation people. Brazilian style. (at least it won’t be zimbabwe style)
    btw, anybody live through nixon’s stagflation/price control era? …

  14. I am one of the dazed masses, because I read that number 2.5 BILLION and I just don’t believe it. The bank sold for 1.75 billion and the bonuses are 2.5 BILLION? It’s a typo. It’s impossible. Cannot be.
    In fact I won’t tell my husband because he won’t believe me, and he won’t read about it anywhere else.
    I’m just stunned. Oh lord, save me. Because i can feel my liver starting to hurt…

  15. greg0 says:

    Who’s talking about a revolution? Interesting comments following this blog…
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/welcome-to-the-final-stag_b_127990.html#comments
    Excerpt: “It seems this time around, the Bush family is trying the more subtle approach to open bloodshed: first create a crisis, then under the guise of addressing that crisis, overthrow democracy. Yes, it does sound terribly conspiracy-theory-esque when explained just this way. But what else does one call a criminal conspiracy to destroy Congressional powers permanently, alter Judicial powers permanently, and steal public funds?”

  16. Paul says:

    A dependable plumb to determine how far we have fallen: consider that the most popular financial news outlet is led by the likes of Erin Burnett and Maria Bartiromo. Intelligent people actually pay attention and take advice from these fast- talking empty vessels.
    If Burnett and Bartiromo garner attention it follows that Ms Palin will be irresistable.

  17. Chris says:

    A bailout is an understatement for what just happened last week.
    The United States has been sacked by its own elites.
    That was only the insult. You know what’s the injury? Where the $700 billion is going to come from: a combination of Argentinization and Third World economic shock therapy a la World Bank/IMF.

  18. Clifford Kiracofe says:

    Resistance … as when the French fought Nazi occupation.
    Historians in the future may look at this period of American history as the overt follow on move toward the fascist state that some Wall Street types first attempted in the 1930s through their “American Liberty League.” The crypto fascist organization was “bi-partisan” and modeled on European orgs.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Liberty_League
    Techniques of the enemy?
    1. Maintain an atmosphere of crisis and fear so as to have an ongoing “emergency situation.”
    2. Involve the republic in costly and unnecessary no-win wars.
    3. Permit/create a financial crisis at home so as to further reinforce the atmosphere of “emergency” under which “emergency powers” can be usurped by the Executive.
    4. The basics are outlined in Carl Schmitt’s writings which are one basis, IMO, of the Shultz-Cheney cabal. [Neocons and Straussians are the small fry, Shultz is a vector of the “higher” transnational circles as is Rohatyn for the Dems.]
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Schmitt
    5. For those with an interest in the hidden side of international politics, the influence of the 19th century occultist, Alexandre St. Yves d’Alveydre, and his fascist ideas are worth understanding in the present context. If one were really sophisticated, and had the means, then an analysis of the penetration of continental lodges by Martinism and its variants over the past century would be instructive:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Saint-Yves_d'Alveydre

  19. Grimgrin says:

    It makes me wonder what Lehman’s investment banking and capital markets businesses are actually worth, and whether the people receiving the bonuses had any control over the decision to sell to Barclays. It seems like corrupt business 101, sell an asset under your control cheap, in exchange for a kickback.
    And if there’s going to be a revolution, let’s make it old school and bring back the guillotine. Whatever else you can say about revolutionary France, they got the method of dealing with the aristocracy right.

  20. Cold War Zoomie says:

    Sorry, but I’ve got tickets to the circus.
    Now, where’s that loaf of bread gone to?

  21. fnord says:

    Heresy, I know, but: Perhaps it is time that someone formed the social democratic party of the US on the model of Scandinavia/Canada? Because with all due respects, sirs and ladies, the capitalists seem to have gone insane and lost their perspective and it is obvious that some statecontrol of the markets is needed. Tax all incomes over 2 million hard, run it straight into healthcare and subsidized houseloans, put the state in as semiowner of vital logistics like natural resources and energylines and put a cap on how much a CEO can recieve in bonus. Just some ideas.

  22. J says:

    Colonel,
    I propose some ‘stringent strings’ be attached to any such ‘bailout’, since the ‘bailout’ will incur an additional several thousands of dollars of debt upon each and every American.
    1. Paulson has to resign as Treas. Sec., surrender ALL of his bank accounts, holdings, and assets and turn them ALL over to the Treas.. Once Paulson has accomplished that, then he is to proceed to a Federal lock-up (a.k.a. Federal ‘Medium security’ Prison) to be incarcerated there FOR THE REMAINDER OF HIS LIFE.
    2. The heads of Lehman, AIG, Fannie, and Freddie to include their present and past CEOs, CFOs, Boards of Directors, ALL have to comply with the MANDATORY PROVISIONS contained in Item #1 above.
    If such mandates are not met on the part of the criminal parties, then all bailouts are off!

  23. J says:

    Colonel,
    Re: stringent strings for any ‘bailouts
    3. The Fed Reserve Chair Bernake, Greenspan, and all Fed Reserve members under both Bernake and Greenspan ALL have to comply with item 1 the same as the crook Paulson.
    1. Paulson has to resign as Treas. Sec., surrender ALL of his bank accounts, holdings, and assets and turn them ALL over to the Treas.. Once Paulson has accomplished that, then he is to proceed to a Federal lock-up (a.k.a. Federal ‘Medium security’ Prison) to be incarcerated there FOR THE REMAINDER OF HIS LIFE.

  24. John Howley says:

    Latest NBC/WSJ poll puts Bush at 55 percent negative, 33 positive and 12 percent neutral.
    Why would anyone running for office support anything proposed by such an unpopular president?
    Yet Obama and McCain are both backing Bush’s plan.
    It’s about “jobs for the boys.” In the past, that meant supporting farmers or the steel industry or defense.
    Now it means pumping up Wall Street because that’s where “our” friends and relations and contributors all work.

  25. Agree fully with Welsh plan. Note that insider activity is booming. Led of course by Treasury officials that don’t seem to realize that they represent John Q. Public not the Wall Streeters. Does the ICC (International Criminal Court) have jurisdiction over criminal financial crimes? This looting of the the Treasury and public fisc is getting unbelievable. Congress is as bankrupt as Lehman!

  26. Nancy K says:

    fnord I think your suggestions sound just like what we need. I think the average thinking American is getting really tired of CEO’s that barnkrupt a company, walking away with everything. Also, why shouldn’t the wealthiest 5% pay more in taxes. As the bible says, those whom much is given, much is expected.

  27. Curious says:

    The price of Trash, Paulson wanst to pay as pure Gold… It’s crashing all over.
    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/09/lbo-loan-prices-continue-to-fall.html
    With banks still holding LBO loan inventory that they’d like to be rid of, and recent sales requiring seller financing, it’s no surprise that loan prices continue to decay.
    The value of leveraged loans fell to record lows during the past week, creating further potential mark-to-market losses for both investors and banks.
    The average bid on the most traded US leveraged loans dropped 330 basis points to an all-time low of 84.28 per cent of face value, according to data from Standard & Poor’s LCD and Markit.
    The average bid for Europe’s most traded leveraged loans fell to its lowest level in seven months but, across a broader range of loans, the average price also fell to a historic low….
    Simon Hood, joint head of leveraged loans and mezzanine debt at European Credit Management, said: “With renewed volatility in the stock market and concern about the economic situation, a dawning of reality that the economy will get worse has taken over and we have seen a drift downward of prices, accentuated by recent events.”
    The spread between the price at which traders were quoting bids and offers nearly doubled, indicating a level of uncertainty and illiquidity not seen since last August when the credit crunch hit.
    Mr Hood said buyers were sitting on the sidelines awaiting stability before investing.

  28. ExBrit says:

    For the first time in my life I have taped a printed paper to the back window of my car. It says: NO BLANK CHECKS FOR WALL ST. CROOKS. TELL CONGRESS.
    It’s an attempt, no matter how futile, to wake up the populace. Driving around today I’m getting quite a few thumbs up.

  29. Curious says:

    BAM…
    everybody dumps dollar and going to places that holds value.
    Dumping $1Trillion liquidity into the market has consequence people. Inflation will be raging mad.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12400801/
    Oil prices spiked more than $25 a barrel Monday — the biggest one-day price jump ever — as anxiety over the government’s $700 billion bailout plan battered the dollar and touched off frenzied buying of safe-haven investments including crude.
    Light, sweet crude for October delivery jumped as much as $25.45 to $130 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange before falling back somewhat to trade at $123.77,up $19.22. The contract was set to expire at the end of the day, adding to the volatility; the October price began accelerating sharply in the last hour of regular trading.

  30. JerseyJeffersonian says:

    Unfortunately, I’m not surprised by the brazen fashion in which the bribery is being forwarded. This is just golden parachutes for the Banker Boyz. Gotta have ’em. It’s really just SOP, don’t ya know.
    No, what really gets me riled up is the bigger context of the marketing of the Paulsen “plan”.
    The way in which this abomination of a “plan” is being sold should remind everyone of the way in which con men always work. They always want the marks to commit right away, lest they miss out on this unique, time-sensitive opportunity. Quick, quick, quick! No time to THINK what the ramifications of this “opportunity” really are. If you want to slow the decision making down, the pressure to buy into the grift immediately just goes up. (H/T to the Rude Pundit for this thought.)
    Remind you of how the Patriot Act was sold? Remind you of how the Iraq war was sold? Crisis! Crisis! You should all just listen to Your Betters; They have your interests at heart, trust Them.
    Can you imagine how much toxic financial sludge will be piled onto the tab should Congress go along with this? I mean, in the past our “representatives” couldn’t be bothered to even read the Patriot Act before signing off on it, although things that should have given them pause were there to be seen in the text of the proposed law. But now, in a further devolution, this whole scam, once embraced, will be beyond any legislative OR judicial review. Yeah, that sounds like something that our “representatives” can get behind, alright.

  31. JerseyJeffersonian says:

    Unfortunately, I’m not surprised by the brazen fashion in which the bribery is being forwarded. This is just golden parachutes for the Banker Boyz. Gotta have ’em. It’s really just SOP, don’t ya know.
    No, what really gets me riled up is the bigger context of the marketing of the Paulsen “plan”.
    The way in which this abomination of a “plan” is being sold should remind everyone of the way in which con men always work. They always want the marks to commit right away, lest they miss out on this unique, time-sensitive opportunity. Quick, quick, quick! No time to THINK what the ramifications of this “opportunity” really are. If you want to slow the decision making down, the pressure to buy into the grift immediately just goes up. (H/T to the Rude Pundit for this thought.)
    Remind you of how the Patriot Act was sold? Remind you of how the Iraq war was sold? Crisis! Crisis! You should all just listen to Your Betters; They have your interests at heart, trust Them.
    Can you imagine how much toxic financial sludge will be piled onto the tab should Congress go along with this? I mean, in the past our “representatives” couldn’t be bothered to even read the Patriot Act before signing off on it, although things that should have given them pause were there to be seen in the text of the proposed law. But now, in a further devolution, this whole scam, once embraced, will be beyond any legislative OR judicial review. Yeah, that sounds like something that our “representatives” can get behind, alright.

  32. WP says:

    Now, the scam is becoming cliearer. First the government buys the trash from the brokerages at inflated prices and the trash goes into the treasury. Then the Treasury sells the trash at rock-bottom prices to Carlyse Group (GHW Bush and Co.) and others of similar Ilk.
    Then, Carlysle ENFORCES THE CONTRACT AT FULL FACE VALUE, dispossessing the poor suckers who bought the houses and making a huge profit.
    These crook are stealing America from us!
    And, of course, the Dems will go tagging along like a bunch of sheep.

  33. TR Stone says:

    I’ve never been a fan/supporter of the NRA, but it may come to the “right to bear arms”.

  34. Mr.Murder says:

    Wait until people find out how much Social Security money was squandered in no bid contracts.

  35. Perhaps they do expect the tumbrils rumbling. The 3rd Infantry’s 1st BCT is training for:
    homeland duties.
    Are any of you as frightened by this as I am?

  36. Maureen Lang says:

    FYI- 9/23/08, 9:37 a.m. ET-
    Sen. Dodd now gaveling open the Senate Banking Committee with:
    Paulson
    Bernanke
    Cox
    Lockhart (FHFA)
    Telecast on CSPAN3, it’s also on CSPAN 1 until 10:00 am & available online @ the Committee website live feed:
    http://banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Detail&HearingID=7a41ae9e-30b2-4d7f-8f1b-4ef2e8ae28f7

  37. zanzibar says:

    Maureen
    I wonder if Sen. Dodd and his Banking Committee will only be hearing from the guys that got it wrong consistently.
    What is it about our country that they guys that got drunk and crashed the car into the wall at high speed are given crack and an 18 wheeler as a reward! They need to be sent to jail to sober up while the sober folks that got it right all along should be the one’s in charge.
    Paulson, Bernanke, Cox and Lockhart all deserve to be fired immediately!

  38. DaveGood says:

    May I suggest we all just skip the warm, fuzzy Tar and feathers stuff and go straight to the torch\pitchforks\rope\ scenario?
    DaveGood

  39. Dan Bradburd says:

    Thinking about the bailout–and the way it has been presented–Naomi Klein’s Disaster Capitalism came to mind. She hasn’t got all the details down, but her description of the pattern seems spot on, and, in this particular case, eerily prescient.

  40. Curious says:

    The crisis occurred (to greatly oversimplify) because the financial system allowed entities to place bets on whether or not those mortgages would ever be paid. You didn’t have to own a mortgage to make the bets. These bets, called Credit Default Swaps, are complex. But in a nutshell, they allow someone to profit immensely – staggeringly – if large numbers of subprime mortgages are not paid off and go into default.
    The profit can be wildly out of proportion to the real amount of defaults, because speculators can push down the price of instruments tied to the subprime mortgages far beyond what the real rates of loss have been. As I said, the profits here can be beyond imagining. (In fact, they can be so large that one might well wonder if the whole subprime fiasco was not set up just to allow speculators to profit wildly on its collapse…)
    These Credit Default Swaps have been written (as insurance is written) as private contracts. There is nil government regulation of them. Who writes these policies? Banks. Investment banks. Insurance companies. They now owe the buyers of these Credit Default Swaps on junk mortgage debt trillions of dollars. It is this liability that is the bottomless pit of liability for the financial institutions of America.
    In fact, they can be so large that one might well wonder if the whole subprime fiasco was not set up just to allow speculators to profit wildly on its collapse…
    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/23/133349/153/556/607628

  41. zanzibar says:

    Newt Gingrich gets the politics of the Wall Street Crony Welfare Bill right.

  42. Curious says:

    Getting real — and letting the cat out of the bag
    Whoa — it seems that Ben Bernanke ditched his prepared testimony and, instead, let the cat at least partly out of the bag.
    I believe that under the Treasury program, auctions and other mechanisms could be devised that will give the market good information on what the hold-to-maturity price is for a large class of mortgage-related assets. If the Treasury bids for and then buys assets at a price close to the hold-to-maturity price, there will be substantial benefits.
    First, banks will have a basis for valuing those assets and will not have to use fire sale prices. Their capital will not be unreasonably marked down …
    As I wrote earlier this morning, the whole “take these assets off the balance sheets” line is fundamentally disingenuous; the key question is what price Treasury pays for the assets. And here we have Bernanke effectively saying that it’s going to pay above-market prices — prices that allegedly reflect “hold-to-maturity” value, but still more than private investors are willing to pay.

    What possible justification can there be for doing this without acquiring an equity stake?
    No equity stake, no deal.
    http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/getting-real/

  43. taters says:

    Certainly I would never condone this – it has to be sending chills.
    Outrage as Indian minister says murder of CEO by sacked mob ‘serves as a warning’
    Rhys Blakely in Bombay
    Indian business leaders have expressed outrage at a government minister’s comment that the beating to death of a chief executive by a mob of sacked workers “should serve as a warning for management”.
    Lalit Choudhary, 47, the head of the Delhi-based operations of Graziano Trasmissioni, an Italian car parts maker, died of head wounds on Monday after being lynched by scores of employees he had dismissed.
    The incident, at Graziano’s plant in Greater Noida, a suburb of the Indian capital, came after a dispute between the factory’s management and workers who had demanded better pay and permanent contracts. Mr Choudhary was holding a meeting with more than 100 former staff to discuss a possible reinstatement deal when the attack occured.
    The murder has left much of corporate India in shock. However, Oscar Fernandes, who heads India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment, declined to criticise the attack.
    The minister said: “Workers should be dealt with compassion ? Workers should not be pushed so hard that they resort to whatever happened.”
    The Government has admitted that there exists widespread resentment among the hundreds of millions of Indians who have failed to benefit from their country’s economic renaissance.
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4817414.ece

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