Rant

After reading that AIG letter I wanted to vent a little. Honestly with all the shit swirling around the industry I work in it I've been somewhat silent through it all. Yes I've linked right winged political articles and yes I've shown some disdain for our new president but it's all been reserved. Until now.

There is nothing I enjoy more than public outrage, especially when it's forced upon the public from crooked ass politicians who all have an agenda and that agenda is never to help anyone else but themselves. If Wall Street is as corrupt as they say then Congress, The House and the staff of the President are devils. First let me start out by saying if the government would have bailed out Lehman Brothers this mess could have been avoided. And I'm serious when I say that. Economic experts agree, look it up. But instead they chose to facilitate a deal for Bear Stearns or more like stage a robbery to help a politically connected Jamie Dimon at Chase. Funny how that works. Poor Dick Fuld must have not contributed enough to Hank Paulson. In any event the credit default swap era took to a new shitty low. Firms were ripped apart, failed and collapsed. Companies that had vested options, bonds, other derivatives were soon not paid leaving many other companies penniless. At the same time banks froze credit and people defaulted on mortgages left and right rendering them useless. So what happens next, enter government.

TARP was created to rescue troubled assets of firms around the country to stop the bleeding. Subprime mortgage positions, credit swap defaults and otc options produced losses in the trillions in the financial industry. Now the plan had some changes but essentially the idea was to stand up these firms to prevent them from failing. Then media outlets began to do what they do best and that is for the most part spread lies. Reporting, in part about CEO pay, executive perks, country club memberships, etc. And part of this is warranted. CEO's have always made way too much money even in the worst of times but this outrage started to trickle down to the everyday worker.

The guy like me. I was stressed out so bad this past year because I was so afraid my bonus would not be paid. A bonus to the normal employee from associate level on up to anyone NOT on the executive board is basically just your overtime for the year. Since we get no overtime. Furthermore it came across like the government didn't know wall street was acting like this. Fucking Hank Paulson was Goldman's CEO during the time Credit Default Swaps were invented! He mad GAZILLIONS while at Goldman. Everyone knew these risk based products were dangerous, but when people make money they tend to shaddup about anything that would cause an outcome where they don't make money anymore. And don't even get me started on how the democrats and the former Clinton president ruined the mortgage business by giving loans to filthy poor ass people all in the name of living the American Dream. Because that's another day. And I'll admit Bush did some fucked up shit but economically he was a sound president. For three years he begged congress to reign in on Freddie and Fannie Mac. While blowhards like Barney Frank assured Americans the mortgage business was as sound as ever.

The overall slant on Wall Street is negative. It's a shame, even the President has gone out of his way in the past and now to bash it. Mainly because he still has the experience of a junior Senator and doesn't have a clue about how Wall Street works. It seems as if Americans turned on each other so quickly and all that aided it was a little he said she said. Like High School. One big gossip fest ostracizing the "whore" of the group. Nevermind the fact that thousands of normal people lost their jobs over this entire mess. Life savings gone. My uncle personally lost over a million dollars of Bear Stearns stock, was an employee for 23 years. Not on the executive board. Just a normal guy, thinking he had a secure job, with a wife, two grown kids.

Yeah Public Outrage, you want to take his bonus away too because his bank got TARP money. Fuck you public. And Fuck you hard. Read up on something once in awhile and try to understand what is really going on. Stop being sheep. You look like a crazed PETA member throwing red paint on a chinchilla coat. Act accordingly. The TARP money was to posture up financial companies who made bad bets. Deal with it. Part of posturing up a company is keeping workers compensation flowing. Yes it's fucked up teachers get paid shitty but you chose to be a teacher. No one complains about cops all over the country pulling in double overtime or no one mentioned any Senators forgo a year salary or not take any $12,000 "business trips" overseas. But everyone wants workers on Wall Street to return bonuses and to give up doing business the way it's been done since the day the first stock was publicly traded. Sometimes I really question this country's overall aptitude. And sometimes I come away thinking it's declining, at a massive massive rate.