Lehman Managers Portrayed as Irresponsible
No kidding. Loved this:
One Lehman document among thousands reviewed by the House committee showed that four days before the bank filed for bankruptcy protection, Lehman’s compensation committee was asked to grant $20 million in “special payments” for three executives who were leaving, Mr. Waxman said. An e-mail exchange recommending a delay in bonus payments was apparently brushed aside.
Another document showed that executives were warned in a January 2008 meeting that the company was facing liquidity problems. Yet the firm moved forward with capital outlays, including $5 billion in bonuses, $4 billion in shares and $750,000 in dividend payments between 2007 and the firm’s bankruptcy filing on Sept. 15.
Awesome.
gopher2b
I’m not a bankruptcy attorney, but I would think a bankruptcy court has the authority to get that money back.
Love the photo.
Punchy
It’s clear from the name–Lehman Brothers–that Scary Negros caused this mess.
r€nato
now we are getting a first-hand taste of why, when they get tired of being held down by politicians so that the privileged class can repeatedly ass-rape them, sometimes people turn to ideologies like Communism or socialism.
love the sign too. Can I help give them a shove?
Axe Diesel Palin
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2412/after-the-1929-stock-market-crash-did-investors-really-jump-out-of-windows
A little out of context:
r€nato
i may have missed discussion of this, but are there any plans to implement thumbs-up/thumbs-down of comments?
John Cole
@r€nato: No. I will never have troll ratings or voting on comments. People are allowed to speak their mind, and if people do not like it, they can download Cleek’s script.
greynoldsct00
There really ought to be a law that puts these assholes in jail for this kind of greedy recklnessness – pirating all that money away right before bankruptcy? And this guy not in the least bit apologetic? Hell with jumping (though I agree with the sentiment), hang ’em high! At a minimum, seize their assets and replenish the 401K’s of the staff who lost everything.
Danton
I just read that Bush’s cousin, George H. Walker, is a Lehmann exec. Hmmm…
Polish the Guillotines
With bells on. Fuck all the junior high troll rating crap. It kills threads dead with slap-fights and popularity contests. This is the one blog I read where the commentariat really knows how to bring the zing. It’s both a pleasure and a challenge. Keep it that way.
Perry Como
McCain is giving a stump speech. He’s saying people should get off his lawn.
Perry Como
Christ, McCain sounds like he’s trying to round up a lynch mob.
Joe
John, you’re missing the comedy gold at the end of the AP article I found on Yahoo! News just now…here’s a quote:
That could be one of the most elitist, callous, irresponsible quotes I’ve ever seen…and its from the president’s cousin of all people! Too ridiculous for words.
Redhand
Why am I not surprised?
It will be interesting to see if these payments are voidable preferences under the bankruptcy laws.
Punchy
@John Cole: what if we hate Cleek’s shit, too?
greynoldsct00
On another but similar topic, how about Citi suing Wachovia because of the Wells Fargo deal? I mean, Citi wants to buy the commercial ops and have the taxpayers deal with the rest (as best as I can tell, I’m no expert). Versus having Wells buy the whole thing at no expense to the taxpayers. And now Citi wants to sue for something like $60 billion? What is this? If we can’t have it, nobody can? Just run it into the ground with legal bills? I’m sure there are many legal intracacies involved but I still find it unfuckingbelievable.
LiberalTarian
Love the sign. Need one for my porch.
Napoleon
I am sure somewhere there is a Shiftless Negro (TM – the Republican Party) that was really responsible for those payouts, likely as a result from some obsure law in 1956 or something.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
TRed for being whiny.
The Other Steve
I would like to vote r€nato off the island.
Tsulagi
Also love the sign. Can they put one on the WH fence too?
Polish the Guillotines
Wow. And I thought you were being hyperbolic. This is McCain’s all-in play. It’s ugly. Really ugly.
Josh Huaco
@R3nato: I tell people that the $700B could have been better spent paying off the mortgages of everyone who makes below $100K a year. Whatever’s left buys a bullet through the throat of every fucker on Wall Street who makes more than $100K a year.
Perry Como
@Punchy:
Stay out of cleek’s bathroom. Perv.
Polish the Guillotines
Well played, sir. Well played.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
I have to agree. By using some fancy French font in his username, he’s clearly showing his contempt for the Joe Sixpacks of the comments section.
Martin
I think we tend toward Joe Twelvepacks, personally.
gbear
Back in the mid-80’s when I quit drinking, I was trying out different non-alcoholic beers. Heilmann (I think it was) produced an incredibly horrid version that was called Zing! which was also packaged in the ugliest design a can has ever seen.
Trust me when I say that you didn’t want to bring that zing.
Comrade Jake
That’ll go well, seeing as how "angry old white dude" works like a fucking champ for McCain.
Brachiator
@Josh Huaco:
$700 billion? $700 billion is for sissies.
Who needs the free market when the Fed is your sugar daddy?
ThymeZone
I would like to vote that hyperbole is outlawed.
I’ve told you a million times, that shit is whack.
But aside from that, this is the best blog in the ENTIRE WORLD.
In the GALAXY.
r€nato
use of alternate characters is indeed the ultimate sign of elitist, cappuccino-swilling, gay-marrying, socialist, class-warfare, wealth-redistributing, America-hating tendencies.
As we all know, it is a very short slide down the slippery, Astroglide-lubricated moral degeneracy slope from ‘alternate characters’ to ‘alternate lifestyles’.
I find your ideas intriguing and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
cleek
i’m changing the locks as soon as i get home.
Comrade Face
I saw the sign and thought the guy was just attending a poorly-organized Van Halen concert.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
What does he do when it doesn’t work and he still has 20 days left to the election, does he serve drinks or something?
Kali's Little Sister
So you’re saying we’ve all become the beer heiress to Wall Street? McCainanomics at work!
Joe Twelvepack, indeed!
Polish the Guillotines
Isn’t there implicit false advertising in calling a non-alcoholic beer "Zing!"?
And you weren’t kidding about the cans. I tried to embed, but it failed.
Zing!
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
Shorter Sean Hannity:
Jeezus ….. the world is tumbling down around his ears, and Sean is barking about Jeremiah Wright.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
@Polish the Guillotines:
It’s just not the same when you can’t have a mid-thread slapfight, where the comments get nested so deeply only one word will fit on each line.
@Martin:
Duly noted. By election eve I think we’ll be up to Eighteenpack or Twentyfourpack.
@r€nato:
That’s why I can’t bring myself to vote for Barack Huss€in Obama.
jake
Gad, the only thing missing is a little "Heh," at the end.
I took it as a sign that Citi is desperate for cash in any shape or form, even shaky, largely theoretical cash. Good times.
Several months ago I told the S.O. that the end times would be heralded by the sharks tearing each other to shreds. We acted responsibly and stocked up on popcorn.
Next prediction: High powered execs start ratting each other out. Wheee!
mellowjohn
it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that zing!
qwerty42
geeze, if this is the case, the shareholders and bondholders should just launch a massive lawsuit for misfeasance. The corporate shield can be pierced (though not easily). I don’t care if these bastards are in and out of court on civil charges for decades.
Perhaps I’ll be in a more charitable mood after I see the quarterly reports of the mutual funds. ya think?
WarrenTarragon
Wall Street is the central focus of the War On Terror.
The world is better off without Lehman Hussein.
gbear
If I could vote thumbs up for a comment, it would be for this one.
Not if it the term describes how fast you wind up in the bathroom (but not cleek’s bathroom, which is locked).
justme
IIRC, it was Lehman that pissed off its London office by doing some sort of emergency transfer of funds, on the order of $200mil, to its NY office so that the NYers could get their bonuses, while London basically got told to pound sand.
I’ll look for a link.
Speaking of which, is there one for that brilliant quote by teh Bushspawn?
Lavocat
OMFG!!!!
I want that emblazoned on a t-shirt!
FEEL THE ANGER!
Svensker
A Quaker friend went to a demonstration on Wall Street last week. She said, at the end of the day, the secretaries and the execs with the briefcases scuttled out of the buildings, trying not to make eye contact. Then some traders still in the buildings started hanging out the open windows, taunting the crowd by waving dollar bills at them. The crowd got enraged and started shouting "jump jump jump". My friend said that the anger level was incredible.
TheFountainHead
It’s official, we’re all living in the Twilight Zone. John McCain described Obama as "Touchy" and "Angry" when questioned.
/gawk
Gus
Anyone else read Kunstler every Monday? I like to just because it makes me feel like an optimist.
gbear
TPM has a transcript of McCain’s rant posted and is working on the video.
(It is possible that the video was posted in the time between my copying the link and the time that the boss left my cubicle. busted.)
r€nato
it’s my experience that the biggest assholes in the world quite often project on others their worst qualities – it’s a particularly asshole-ish way of ‘inoculating’ one’s self against the same accusations because it then turns into a ‘he said/he said’ situation in the eyes of those who don’t know better.
Comrade Face
Wow. My Irony Meter just essploded again
w vincentz
What a waste. The US government spent years, many lives, and very many dollars looking for "terrorists" in ME countries.
These were supposed to destroy our ‘Merkin way of life.
Hmmm….and here they were all the while, living in Washington where they whored for their Wall St pimps.
And the ‘Merkins" were the ones that got fucked.
on a side note, take time to read Kucinich’s view on this in Chris Hedges’ piece at commondreams.
jake
When the going gets tough, the losers start projecting harder than the little girl in the Exorcist.
Next he’ll say Obama is too old for the job, accuse him of engaging in reckless behavior that resulted in a fire on the U.S.S. Forrestal, followed by a string of ads that revile Obama the Adulterer for ditching his first wife after she was seriously injured in a car accident.
And then he’ll shout at some clouds.
Polish the Guillotines
Wow. It’s like Thunderdome out there.
Via Sully via Gawker: Cramer pressed the panic button on the Today show.
Jay in Oregon
What a waste. The US government spent years, many lives, and very many dollars looking for "terrorists" in ME countries.
These were supposed to destroy our ‘Merkin way of life.
I could be wrong, but wasn’t there some ambiguous or overly-broad section of the USA PATRIOT Act that allowed for people who threaten our economy to be treated as "enemy combatants"?
I’m sure after a little bit of waterboarding or electrical-clamps-to-the nipples for some of these SOBs, we can get to the bottom of this mess tout de suite.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Hey Face, that link isn’t working and I can’t figure out why. It looks to be set up properly but I’m getting an error message.
jake
He spoke at Ashland University*?
Bwahahaha! What’s the matter George, Regents Univ. doesn’t want you darkening its gates?
*For extra heLOLs, check the list of famous alums.
Common Sense
After a poll was announced showing a majority of Americans think Palin is unqualified, Terry Jeffrey just suggested the GOP flip the ticket. He thinks the poll shows Palin has shown she’s capable and that they’d be doing better with Palin on the top of the ticket. Even Wolf is incredulous.
Is it too late to follow his advice?
Gus
We live in interesting times. When the Depression hit there were competing philosophies to democratic capitalism. Now it doesn’t seem like anyone considers anything more radical than social democracy as practiced in Scandinavian countries as a viable philosophy. What I worry about is a huge lurch rightward in this country if Obama isn’t up to the task (and not many people would be) of being the next FDR. I worry about violence in the streets and people quickly being ready to accept anyone who can promise to restore order.
Danton
You know what’s odd about the last few days? A whole lot of Republicans see the "end times" coming. Democrats feel like there’s a renaissance about to begin.
Chuck
Umm… 750 THOUSAND DOLLARS in dividend payments? Why does that chump change even appear in the same sentence as "$5 billion" and "$4 billion"? Assuming a typo for "million", or else a weird inability to understand orders of magnitude.
w vincentz
@ Jay in Oregon,
I’m not to sure that Swiftboat Sarah would like the electrical-clamps-to-the nipples, but I’m all for giving it a try. Might make the lipstick melt.
Now if those were to be put on a chimp’s penis, yaknow, the guy with the MBA, I’m also in favor.
Just so ya rest a bit easier, iit’s nice to know that Victor E Renault is now in charge of Northcom. He’s the guy that oversaw reconstruction for Operation Enduraing Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Can’t wait to see what happens to "freedom luvin’ ‘Merkins" when they take to the streets of DC.
Perry Como
That right, Tweety just compared Obama to yours truly. Obama is the Perry Como of politics.
tripletee (formerly tBone)
You’re a secret Muslim too?
TheFountainHead
Yeah, but Perry Como never fathered two black children, nor did he attempt to blow up the Pentagon when he was eight.
Comrade Jake
I swear you can’t make this stuff up. On CNN’s politics main page right now, it has the headline "CNN poll: Obama opens up 5-point lead over McCain."
Click on the link, and they have:
So Obama gets a headline of 5-points for a poll showing he actually has an 8-point lead. Brother can’t catch a break.
Laura W
Same shitty network, different day:
Yesterday I had CNN on and the anchor (who must be new since I can’t recall his face or name, thankfully) was showing a clip of the Asheville rally and said: "It looks like a couple thousand people there."
Oh reeeeeeaaaalllyy?
Obama draws 28,000 to Asheville, NC – My Experience
by fsugrad2005, Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 07:38:59 PM EST
I attended Sen. Obama’s campaign rally today in Asheville, NC, and it was amazing. Asheville is located in the mountains of Western North Carolina, a very red area. Asheville itself, however, is a fairly liberal oasis surrounded by a sea of deep red. Police estimates indicate that Obama drew 28,000 people to the Asheville High Stadium, an unbelievable feat considering this state has not seen a major presidential candidate in many decades!
Let’s put this number in perspective. In 2004, John Kerry got 51,868 votes in Buncombe County (Asheville is the county seat) and Bush got 52,391 votes. Yet Obama was able to draw MORE THAN HALF of either Bush’s or Kerry’s vote total for a rally. Simply Amazing! However, some of the people were from South Carolina or Tennessee, but the vast majority were from these parts.
Kevin
Madalyn Murray O’Hair?
Stuck in the Fun House
About this time in the 2004 election little things like this popped up on CNN. I don’t remember the details, but some fingers pointed to former wingnut Bill Schneider going all Fox like with the purposeful headline snafus.
Comrade Jake
So, what do the networks do if the polls begin to indicate a real laugher of an election? Just keep pretending it’s close?
John Cole
@Comrade Jake: Without even clicking thel ink, I can almost guarantee what is going on. I bet the margin of error of the poll is +/- 3, and the person writing the headline simply subtracted the MOE from his lead and came up with a 5 point lead.
I am almost willing to bet.
jake
Yup. The S.O. has a brother, a sister and at least one in-law who went to Ashland. As tiny evangelical splinter churches go, members of the Brethren Church are way down on the list of people who need to be kept away from sharp objects.
But I bet I can annoy the hell out of them by asking about Madalyn. Heh heh heh.
Sister Machine Gun of Mild Harmony
tripletee-
We’re all secret Muslims, now.
liberatemeiexinfernis
i am not a religious guy, but i think this quote would be appropriate:
"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days" James 5:1-3
Delia
What’s really scary is, he wasn’t even screaming. He was just saying in a very quiet voice "Sell all your stocks." He’s never done that before.
But I want to buy John’s photo for my chiropractor. He’s normally a quiet gentle man who dresses like a hippie and is devoted to his wife and child. He opened his own office last year, and besides the usual chiropractor stuff, has typical Eugene things like aromatherapy practitioners working for him. So I had an appointment with him this morning and he was spitting nails about the $700 billion bailout. He was ranting about a bailout for small businesses but you have to be really big and really incompetent to get in on the action.
D. Mason
I’m not advocating any type of violence when I say that I can’t believe no one has started killing these execs by now.
HyperIon
Interesting about the Bush connection to Lehman. But Jeb Bush also went there to "work" after being Fla governor. He got the state pension system to buy a bunch of bonds from Lehman right before he left office. People in Fla are not very happy with old Jeb right now. I’m wondering if he gets a sweet deal, too.
Conservatively Liberal
A-fucking-men, we don’t need no steenking ratings here. Not at the best blog on teh intertubes!
Improved for tongue-in-cheek BJ-style smackdown.
Especially on cleek’s chili and garlic-egg salad sandwich night. Lethal weapon of ass destruction.
Joe Hemphead here! :)
TenguPhule
Extra-strength Paulaxative. When you need to flush that shit down to the proles. Twice the asshole, twice the extra fibery goodness of old fashioned Shit.
Limniade
No. But judging from the headlines from the last few days, they have started killing themselves. First the 90-year-old who shot herself when the sheriff came to evict her from her foreclosed home (she survived, thankfully), now the unemployed financial manager who killed himself and his entire family in L.A.
For being greedy assholes who drove the economy straight into the rocks, these execs should go to jail. For their greed causing ordinary people to become so despondent and hopeless that they should begin taking lives, they should go to Hell.
THX1138
Jump You Fucker Jump- Derek & Clive