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Thursday, January 29, 2009
Obama can’t inspire bipartisanship, but Blagojevich sure can….
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Illinois Senate votes 59-0 to remove the clown.
But you know, I bet some of those senators got a little guilty listening to Blagojevich plead that what he had done was the same things they all do.
“You guys are in politics,” he told them. “You know what we have to do to go out and run elections. There was no criminal activity on those four tapes…. Take those four tapes as they are and you, I believe in fairness, will recognize and acknowledge those are conversations relating to the things all of us in politics do in order to run campaigns and try to win elections.”
Yes, Blago was more crude, crass, blunt and direct about it. Yes, he deserved to be removed as governor. But his mistake was more a matter of degree than many in politics, including many here in Georgia, would be comfortable admitting.
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$18.4 billion in Wall Street bonuses? Priceless
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By almost any measure, 2008 was a complete disaster for Wall Street — except, that is, when the bonuses arrived.
Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year.
That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller.
While the payouts paled next to the riches of recent years, Wall Street workers still took home about as much as they did in 2004, when the Dow Jones industrial average was flying above 10,000, on its way to a record high.
Some bankers took home millions last year even as their employers lost billions.
….All told, bonuses fell 44 percent last year, from $32.9 billion in 2007, the largest decline in dollar terms on record. But the size of that downturn partly reflected the lofty heights to which bonuses had soared during the bull market. At many banks, those payouts were based on profits that turned out to be ephemeral. …
According to Mr. DiNapoli, the brokerage units of New York financial companies lost more than $35 billion in 2008, triple their losses in 2007.
Lucian A. Bebchuk, a professor at Harvard Law School and expert on executive compensation, called the 2008 bonus figure “disconcerting.” Bonuses, he said, are meant to reward good performance and retain employees. But Wall Street disbursed billions despite staggering losses and a shrinking job market.
“This was neither the sixth-best year in terms of aggregate profits, nor was it the sixth-most-difficult year in terms of retaining employees,” Professor Bebchuk said.
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The Great Recession of ‘09
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Jobless rolls jumped to a record peak in mid-January, while new orders for durable goods fell for a fifth straight month in December, data showed on Thursday, underscoring the deepening economic malaise.
The number of people remaining on the benefits roll after drawing an initial week of aid, or continued claims, rose 159,000 to a higher-than-forecast 4.776 million in the week ended Jan. 17, the most recent week for which data is available.
The Labor Department said this was the highest reading since its records on this series began in 1967. … Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits increased to a seasonally adjusted 588,000 last week from a revised 585,000 the prior week. … The Commerce Department is expected to report on Friday that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the economy, contracted at an annual rate of 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter, according to a Reuters survey.”
But if you really want to get depressed, watch this interview with Nouriel Roubini, the NYU economics professor and analyst who in 2006 essentially predicted this catastrophe. Since then, his analysis has continued to seem prescient — time after time, Roubini predictions initially scoffed at by other economists have come true six months later.
The two biggest “takeaways” from the interview:
The Obama stimulus package may create or save some 3 million jobs. But that will only cut this year’s projected job loss from 6 million to roughly 3 million. It’s still going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
More stunning still, the $700 billion in TARP funds won’t be close to enough to solve the banking industry’s problems. In effect, the U.S. banking system is already insolvent, and bringing it back to life will require another $1.4 trillion, a lot of it from the feds. In effect, we’ll have to nationalize the banks for the short term. Roubini believes we have no choice but to take that route, even as he acknowledges the long-term dangers.
Have a nice day.
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America swings toward the Dems
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With the Republican National Committee meeting in Washington, trying to elect a chairman and set a new direction for the party, and with every Republican in the House deciding to vote against the Obama stimulus package, it seems appropriate to look at where things stand between the parties.
“PRINCETON, NJ — An average of 36% of Americans identified themselves as Democrats and 28% as Republicans in 2008. That eight-point advantage is the largest for the Democratic Party since Gallup began regularly conducting its polls by telephone in 1988…
The year-by-year trend shows that Democrats have gained ground against Republicans in each of the last five years, going from a deficit of two points in 2003 to the most recent eight-point advantage.
Additionally, the 36% of Americans who identified as Democrats last year matches the high point in Democratic identification since 1988, when it was also 36%. But since fewer Americans identified as Republicans last year (28%) than in 1988 (31%), the Democratic advantage was larger in 2008.”
