JPMorgan has forked over $617,000 in moving expenses for Jamie Dimon

And yet another reason why Jamie Dimon is against regulation. This particular expense may not be regulated but if clowns like him can't control obnoxious expenses like this, it just may need to happen. Moving expenses are normal for many working people who are transferred though this amount is extreme, to say the least. The guy is a walking PR disaster for an already despised industry. No matter what Dimon and rest of his banking colleagues may say, they all would have been on the street and bankrupt had the taxpayers not bailed them out. CNNMoney:

JPMorgan forked over $421,458 last year to compensate Dimon for moving costs incurred as he moved his family from Chicago to New York. Yes, moving is hell, but you don't know the half of it.

This is the second time in three years that the bank picked up a six-figure sum for Dimon's relocation – which ended up taking five costly years from end to end. The bank has kicked in $617,734 since 2008 to cover the move.

Of course, there is nothing very novel about companies picking up the CEO's moving expenses. "The payment of these expenses is in accordance with the firm's general policy on relocation expenses, applicable to all eligible employees who relocate at the request of the firm," JPMorgan Chase notes.

Enough is never enough for the bankers like Dimon. Read the rest of this post...

Bahrain police beat up human rights activist

Proving yet again that the government is a bunch of thugs. Is the US going to keep quiet or will they bother to do something about their partner in the region?

Authorities in Bahrain on Saturday detained and beat a prominent human rights activist in part of widespread crackdown on the opposition in this tiny Gulf nation, a Bahraini human rights group and his relatives said.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights said Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who formerly worked for international human rights organizations, was detained on Saturday in a pre-dawn raid. Al-Khawaja's daughter, Zainab, confirmed the arrest and said her father was taken from her house in a Shiite village outside the capital, Manama.

She told The Associated Press that armed and masked men, some wearing black police uniforms and carrying riot gear, stormed her house around 2 a.m. on Saturday. They beat her father unconscious before leading him into custody along with her husband and her brother-in-law, she added.

Read the rest of this post...

Krugman: The Paul Ryan $2.9 trillion tax cut will increase the deficit and transfer income upward

Not only is that the likely result, Krugman is wondering whether that's not actually the goal:

Looking at this massive tax cut — NOT taken account of in the CBO estimates — might almost make you think that (a) the Ryan plan would actually increase the deficit and (b) the whole goal is not to reduce the deficit, but to transfer income upward. In fact, it so happens that the estimated cost of those tax cuts is almost exactly equal to the proposed cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, and other programs helping lower-income Americans.

But none of that can be true. After all, the guy has won an award for fiscal responsibility.

I think the Professor gets it. Stupid or evil? Why not both?

Krugman is also amazed at the lavish praise Ryan and his plan are getting in the press. (I almost used the phrase "tongue bath" but I resisted.)

So, we have a plan that proposes to cut spending to Calving [sic] Coolidge levels, without explaining how it will do that; that includes $2.9 trillion in tax cuts, but asserts that it will make that up by broadening the base — yet says literally nothing about what that means; and has as its centerpiece a Medicare plan that will collapse as soon as seniors start getting their grossly inadequate vouchers. ... There’s nothing serious about this plan. And [yet] our pundit class swooned over this fantasy document[.]

I cut that last quote short; click to read the rest. But you get the point.

Which makes my point, stated here, that this Paul Ryan drama is just an elaborate ad campaign, and the swooning press are part of it, playing their role. It looks like there is a ton of behind-the-scenes coordination.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Republicans in House vote to scrap net neutrality

Heaven forbid the GOP does anything other than traditional corporate boot-licking when they're not sucking up to religious wackos.

The US House of Representatives has told the Federal Communications Commission to back off from a plan to impose “net neutrality’’ rules that would prevent service providers from deliberately slowing or blocking Internet traffic.

The Republican-controlled House voted 240 to 179 to block enforcement of an FCC net neutrality order issued in December, but the resolution faces uncertain prospects in the Senate, and President Obama has vowed to veto it.

Will the Democrats ever really stand up to the GOP? I'm not very confident on that one. Read the rest of this post...

At least 27 dead in Syria following protests

Sounds like Assad's big speech where he sacked the cabinet and proposed reforms wasn't as powerful as he had hoped. Al Jazeera:

The deaths occurred after Friday prayers when security forces opened fire with rubber-coated bullets and live rounds to disperse stone-throwing protesters, a witness told Al Jazeera.

Amateur video uploaded to social media websites purportedly showed wounded protesters being treated in the Omari mosque in Daraa.

The state-run SANA news agency had a different take on the events in the flash-point town, saying 19 members of the security forces were killed and 75 people wounded by "armed groups" during the protests.

"According to an interior ministry source, there were 19 martyrs among the police and security forces and 75 wounded by armed groups which used live ammunition in Daraa," the agency said.

Read the rest of this post...

UK business leaders who supported austerity now having second thoughts

Wait a second. You mean the harsh budget cuts that everyone else said would stagnate the economy and prevent recovery for years were right? Golly, who would have imagined?

Archie Norman, the former Tory MP who now chairs ITV, said the government's growth targets were too optimistic. The former Asda boss Andy Bond, Carphone Warehouse founder Charles Dunstone, Tory peer Lord Wolfson, who runs Next, and Yell chairman Bob Wigley predicted tough times ahead as soaring inflation dents consumer spending power, although they continue to support George Osborne's austerity strategy.

Bond expressed doubt about the ability of the private sector to create as many jobs as hoped. "I don't think the private sector is going to be able to pick up the slack in this climate," he said.

Bond, who ran the UK's second largest supermarket chain for five years, forecast a two-year "retail recession" earlier this week.

He was one of 35 bosses who signed a letter to the Daily Telegraph six months ago supporting George Osborne's plan to slash the deficit and arguing that businesses "should be more than capable of generating additional jobs to replace those lost in the public sector".

The Democrats who went along with the GOP cuts should wake up and accept that they too will be responsible for a stagnating economy in the US. Someone in the party really needs to learn how to organize and actually fight. It's been obvious from the day Obama picked his cabinet that he wasn't someone who would fight so somebody else needs to step up. Read the rest of this post...

The Beatles - Glass Onion

Another perfect spring day over here. They are predicting an especially warm month of April this year which probably means a really lousy May with lots of rain. The garden has needed a lot of watering so far, which is unusual for April. Now that the tulips around town have peaked, the wisteria is coming into full bloom. If only my own wisteria could get enough sunshine to bloom, though at least there's good growth this year so the top may be getting enough sun. Even my hydrangeas are starting to bud out back. Read the rest of this post...

EU demanding 'strict' bailout terms for Portugal

If only the bankers who caused this received the same level of strict punishment as the poor bastards who are getting stuck with the tab. We know of course that came out smelling like roses. The Guardian:

Portugal has been served notice that it will need to endure years of unprecedented austerity, spending cuts, and tax rises if Europe is to rescue it from national insolvency to the tune of €80bn.

The daunting terms of the proposed three-year bailout were spelt out by EU finance ministers meeting in Hungary. It was clear that while the 17 countries of the eurozone are to bear the brunt of the bailout, Britain will also be liable for several billion euros in loans to Portugal through its participation in the emergency fund managed by the European commission.

Senior EU officials said the terms for the bailout were to be finalised by mid-May, a fortnight ahead of early elections in Portugal following the collapse of the centre-left government of José Sócrates, toppled last month when the opposition rejected his minority government's austerity package aimed at fending off the need for a European rescue.

Read the rest of this post...

Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper admits to illegal spying

How very shocking.

Rupert Murdoch's powerful British news operation reversed course on Friday and admitted responsibility in a phone hacking scandal that had already cost the prime minister's spokesman his job.

News International, parent company of Britain's top-selling News of the World tabloid, had always vigorously denied it knew journalists were hacking the phones of members of the royal family, politicians, celebrities and sports stars, and blamed a handful of "rogue reporters" for the scandal.

Admission of liability for hacking the phones of eight people — including actress Sienna Miller and politician Tessa Jowell — and agreement to pay compensation amounts to a major turnaround for the company, part of Murdoch's global media empire News Corp.

Read the rest of this post...