Pledge of Allegiance

Just Wondering . . .

I attended a real estate industry function last week (no, that's not what's pictured at right) where the first order of business -- after breakfast but before the formal presentation -- was to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Call it corny, quaint, naive, theistic (yes, the pledge includes the line "under God" -- call the ACLU, whatever).

But the underlying sentiment was unmistakably pure -- and patriotic.

Do you think any Wall Street firms interrupt their breakfasts to recite the Pledge??

Maybe that's the problem (theirs and ours, both).

Bank of America: Slashed Dividends, Billions in Pay

Dear Bank of America:
Who Do You Think You %!#% Work For??

First, a personal disclosure: my wife and I own a couple hundred shares of Bank of America. We've owned them for more than a decade, and they are now worth less than what we paid.

Adjusted for inflation, we've actually lost more than one-third of our original investment.

Call that risk without return.

After reaching a high of almost $50 a share more than two years ago, the stock briefly crumbled to less than $4, and has now partially recovered to just under $17.

A year ago, the dividend was slashed 98%, where it remains today.

So, is Bank of America's leadership now embarrassed and humble? Maybe even a little contrite?

Fat chance:

At Bank of America, traders and bankers are wondering how much Brian T. Moynihan, the bank’s new chief, will be awarded for 2010. Bank of America, which is still absorbing Merrill Lynch, is expected to pay large bonuses, given the bank’s sizable trading profits. “We’re paying for results, and there were some areas of the company that had terrific results, and they will be compensated for that,” said a Bank of America spokesman.

--"For Top Bonuses on Wall Street, 7 Figures or 8?"; The New York Times (1/9/2010)

Is this Wall Street's new social contract with America's savers and investors?

FDR would be (and likely is) rolling over in his grave.

P.S.: to answer the question, "Who do you think you work for?" Clearly, themselves.

Sacrificing the Body (Politic)??

Lincoln et al on Wall Street

"Often limb must be amputated to save a life; but life is never given to save a limb."

--Abraham Lincoln

In sustaining Wall Street while adulterating everything else about America, are we violating Lincoln's dictum?

What we should be doing now is isolating, minimizing, and ultimately replacing Wall Street and our current, dysfunctional financial system.

In the functioning, non-financial world, that's what happened after the 35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis three years ago.

Instead, we're seemingly diverting all our (remaining) resources -- and then some! -- to saving our financial "limb."

As if there weren't enough bodies and debris already in the water?!?

Lincoln would have known better.

So would Theodore Roosevelt, FDR, et al.

Floyd Norris: 'Save This Store'

Trickle-Down Economics, Wall Street-Style

Floyd Norris, one of my favorite financial writers, ran a post earlier this week noting a recent London jewelry store burglary where the average bauble cost $1.5 million.

That prompted this observation, "It will be hard for stores like this to stay in business if governments refuse to support bankers in the style to which they have become accustomed."

In response, I posted this comment:

I used to think that obscene Wall Street pay would finally be stopped when shareholders stood up and said “no more.”

Then I thought it would be stopped once Wall Street had effectively emptied the government’s coffers.

Now I think it will stop only when the government’s coffers have been emptied, its debt is maxed out, and no creditor countries will lend it any more.

How far away is that point?

Do we really want to find out?

--Ross Kaplan, Comment on "Save This Store"; Floyd Norris, The NY Times (8/12/09)

The beauty of the Internet is that there's always a "last, last word," after the previous "last word."

Here's mine:

I'm starting to think that Wall Street VIP's will be obscenely paid until the last sun in the last solar system flames out.