Wall Street bonuses up 17% this year

They're still down from the peak of the bubble years but averaging nearly $129,000 for an annual bonus isn't too shabby. Especially when the 2009 profits are suspect. Remember, even during the peak of the bubble years, they were paid handsomely for selling what turned out to be trash which was wiped off the books. Wall Street never paid those bonuses back but they continued to accept shockingly high bonuses. Even a down year there is a comfortable year for many others.

Wall Street bonuses rose 17 percent to $20.3 billion last year, but were still a third down from the level before the financial meltdown, Thomas DiNapoli, New York State comptroller, told CNBC Tuesday.

Profits on Wall Street could exceed an unprecedented $55 billion for 2009 and the dollars generated by the industry help the state's bottom line, DiNapoli said.

However, he acknowledged that for the majority of Americans, the bonuses are a "bitter pill".

Yeah, about those "profits"... Read the rest of this post...

VIDEO: Why people don't walk cats

And this particular cat is no exception. We briefly tried something like this with similar results. I've seen it done successfully once or twice, but I think those cats were confused. Read the rest of this post...

ABC to cut as much as 25% of their news staff

Nasty.

ABC News staffers got a memorandum Tuesday that promises to leave no part of the organization untouched, and will lead to massive personnel reductions by the end of 2010.

Although the memo from ABC News President David Westin specified no numbers, it was believed the goal for cutbacks is as high as one-quarter of the ABC News staff, which currently totals about 1,400.

More evidence that we're not out of the woods yet. We really shouldn't be talking about cutting spending until this is over. And it clearly isn't over. Read the rest of this post...

FCC survey: High internet charges preventing broadband growth

WashingtonPost:

The findings were part of a survey to be released by the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday. The agency will use the survey data to help figure out how to connect all Americans to affordable broadband services. The project, ordered by Congress, has been delayed by one month and is expected to set policy goals such as reforming a phone subsidy program for broadband and bringing more spectrum to mobile broadband providers.

In its survey of 5,000 adults, the FCC found that 36 percent of people who don’t get broadband service consider computers, installation charges and monthly access fees to be too costly. Half of those people, however, that they would be willing to get service if it were about $25 a month. Nearly all said they would sign up for broadband service it were about $10 a month. The average broadband cost was about $41 a month, according to respondents.

Read the rest of this post...

Geithner softens administration position on 'Volcker Rule'

Sheesh. That didn't take long. I guess having only five recent Treasury Secretaries wasn't enough. After all, CNBC was against it so it's probably better to listen to what they want. This administration really has a knack for lowering expectations. And they wonder why the public finds them spineless and as dysfunctional as the last administration.

The Obama administration lowered expectations Tuesday for the "Volcker rule" to curb risky trading by banks, emphasizing "limits" rather than an outright ban, as Congress shied from the original proposal.

The Treasury Department said in a statement that it supports "mandatory limits" on banks' proprietary trading, in which they trade for their own accounts. The administration last month had called for an outright ban on such trading.

But the original proposal was subject to review by Congress and, as Reuters reported last week, the Senate Banking Committee is considering only a watered-down version of the rule proposed by former Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker.

Ah yes. The Senate isn't very well respected by the public either for obvious reasons. Read the rest of this post...

CBO: In 4th Quarter, stimulus added up to 2.1m jobs, lowered UE rate 1.1%, grew economy 3.5% - and there's more to come

Jesus Christ. Okay, we've gone far beyond "the Republicans are lying" territory. Every newspaper and TV station in the country that covered Republicans claiming that the stimulus didn't create any jobs - that would be you, Scott Brown - needs to go back to those members of Congress and ask them what the hell they were talking about, and what they have to say now that we know the stimulus added up to 2.1m jobs to the economy, lowered the unemployment rate by up to 1.1%, and grew the economy by up to3.5%. That's huge. And, as Reuters notes, that's only in the last three months of 2009 - the bill passed before that, and we already have January and February of this year to add to it too:

The massive stimulus package passed last year to blunt the impact of the worst U.S. recession in 70 years created up to 2.1 million jobs in the last three months of 2009, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday.

The package boosted the economy by up to 3.5 percent and lowered the unemployment rate by up to 2.1 percent during that period, CBO said.

Oh, and there's more coming:

The package is likely to have the greatest impact this year, according to CBO. It is expected to boost GDP by between 1.4 percent and 4 percent and bring down the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percent and 1.8 percent in 2010, higher figures than last year when many of its programs were being set up. The impact is expected to trail off over the next two years.

I just grabbed this chart from the CBO study. Of course there's only a slight mention in the study itself. After talking to some economists, they think the chart shows how many jobs in each quarter are attributable to the stimulus - but the quarters aren't cumulative. So at its peak, this year, the stimulus may create as much as 3.5m jobs.

Read the rest of this post...

Gibbs on public option: 'There isn't enough political support in a majority to get this through'

So, the public option is extremely popular among the American people. There is political support across the country for including it in health care reform. But, the White House press secretary said the votes aren't there:

The White House made it official on Tuesday: the president doesn't think the votes are there to get a public option passed through reconciliation and consequently won't make a push to include or pass the provision.

Speaking at the daily briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked again why the administration did not include the government-run insurance option in its final health care proposal in light of the fact that 23 Democratic senators signed a letter calling for its passage.

"We have seen obviously that though there are some that are supportive of this, there isn't enough political support in a majority to get this through," Gibbs responded. "The president... took the Senate bill as the base and looks forward to discussing consensus ideas on Thursday."

The leader of the free world can't wrangle up 50 votes in the Senate for a provision that polls much better than the President's own health care plan? Doesn't anyone at the White House know how to corral votes on the Hill? Wasn't that supposed to be Rahm's specialty?

If the White House wanted a public option, we could have one. And, Adam Green is right:

The White House obviously has a loser mentality -- but America rallies around winners. Polls show that in state after state, voters hate the Senate bill and overwhelmingly want a public option, even if passed with zero Republican votes. More than 50 Senate Democrats and 218 House Democrats were willing to vote for the public option before, and the only way to lose in reconciliation is if losers are leading the fight. That's why Democrats in Congress should ignore the White House and follow those like Chuck Schumer and Robert Menendez who know that the public option is a political and policy winner.

Ezra Klein is right too:

One other point on the public option: This has been a complete and utter failure of White House leadership. They need to give this effort their support, or they need to kill it by publicly stating their opposition. But they can't simply wait for someone else to make the decision for them, which has been their strategy until now.

If the White House decides that reviving the public option is a good idea, there's reason to believe the Senate would follow them on that. It would make some sense, after all: The public option is popular, its death was partly the product of industry pressure, and the sudden spate of high-profile rate increases offers a nice rhetorical pivot for anyone who wants to argue that individuals should be able to choose an insurer who's not a profit-hungry beast. Plus, Democrats need an excited base going into the 2010 election, and this may be the only way to get it.

Read the rest of this post...

Stewart on CPAC 2010 a.k.a. the conservative Woodstock

The lunacy at CPAC gets the Stewart treatment.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
CPAC 2010 - Rage Within the Machine
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Read the rest of this post...

Schwarzenegger criticizes GOP on stimulus and health care

And the President invited him to the White House. Very smart. This is the kind of media the White House should be doing. Every media opportunity should be a punch to the gut of the Republicans.

"I think the stimulus package has been very successful so far and I think California has benefitted tremendously," he said.

And he sided with Obama, saying it would be wrong to start all over in preparing health care legislation for Congress to consider.

"I think any Republican that says you should start from scratch, I think that's bogus talk, and that's partisan talk," the governor told reporters.

Obama met with the governors as a group Monday morning. Schwarzenegger was the only governor to get a private meeting later with the president.

Read the rest of this post...

US plans for possible delay in Iraq withdrawal

Oh yeah.

The U.S. military has prepared contingency plans to delay the planned withdrawal of all combat forces in Iraq, citing the prospects for political instability and increased violence as Iraqis hold national elections next month.

Under a deadline set by President Obama, all combat forces are slated to withdraw from Iraq by the end of August, and there remains heavy political pressure in Washington and Baghdad to stick to that schedule. But Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Monday that he had briefed officials in Washington in the past week about possible contingency plans.

Odierno declined to describe the plans in detail and said he was optimistic they would not be necessary. But he said he was prepared to make the changes "if we run into problems" in the coming months.

Read the rest of this post...

Pat Robertson's lawyer shows what's wrong with the GOP

I got an action alert today from Jay Sekulow, of the ACLJ - it's an organization that Pat Robertson set up to counter the ACLU. Like every other religious right activist group, the ACLJ tends to parrot whatever the Republican talking point is of the day. To wit: Today it's health care.

Of course, check out what the ACLJ is saying about health care reform. Not surprising from a people who believe that the earth is only 6,000 years old, and that modern man walked alongside Dinosaurs, a la the Flintstones, the ACLJ's take is typical GOP lie:

Brace yourself - the health care game on Capitol Hill just took a dangerous turn.

It appears the President and Democrat leadership in the House and Senate have decided to change the rules ... disregard the U.S. Constitution ... and ram their flawed health care through at any cost.

Congress has now vowed to utilize a one-sided, Democrat-controlled legislative maneuver called "reconciliation" to get the votes they desperately need on health care.

And that's not all. President Obama has released his own pro-abortion version of the bill ... also side-stepping the legislative process - a move that raises serious constitutional concerns. Our nation's legislative branch writes our laws, NOT the President.

Here's the problem. How do you negotiate with people who are either liars, crazy, or both? The reason some people are so upset in this country that they're yelling and screaming at health care meetings, and even storming planes into IRS offices, is because they've been spoon fed a heaping helping of crazy by the right-wing noise machine for several decades. When you tell your followers that by proposing his own health care plan, the President is making an end-run around the Constitution, is it any wonder they start storming the gates?

The Teabaggers, and the remaining rag-tag followers that make up today's Republican party, have been lied to so much by FOX, the religious right, and the leadership of the GOP, it's no wonder they think health care reform is all about death panels. The question is: How do you negotiate in good faith with someone who's either dishonest, stupid, crazy, or a little bit of all three? Read the rest of this post...

GOP obstruction: Senate sitting on 290 bills already passed by House

This is one of the clearest indications of how dysfunctional the Senate has become at the hands of the GOP obstructionists. 290 bills, ranging from serious issues like Wall Street reform and climate change to naming post offices, have passed the House, but haven't moved in the Senate:

Exasperated House Democratic leaders have compiled a list showing that they have passed 290 bills that have stalled in the Senate.

The list is the latest sign that Democrats in the lower chamber are frustrated with their Senate counterparts.

An aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says the list is put together during each Congress, but that this year’s number is likely the largest ever. However, he said Pelosi blames GOP senators, not Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) or Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).

“The Speaker believes that the filibuster has its place, but clearly Senate Republicans are taking what was once a rare procedural move and abusing it to the detriment of progress for America’s working families,” said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.

Mitch McConnell and his caucus probably view this as some kind of badge of honor. But, this is absurd. They've put their partisan agenda ahead of solving the nation's problems.

This should give momentum to the call for filibuster reform. Read the rest of this post...

White House offers to post GOP's health care plan on White House website

Yesterday, the Obama administration posted its health care proposal on the White House website. The summit is Thursday. And, although the GOPers have been trashing the Democratic health care legislation for months, they've never really proposed one of their own. Today, Dan Pfeiffer, the White House Communications Director, offered the GOPer a prime spot to show their plan -- the White House website:

What you can’t do just yet is read about the Republicans’ consensus plan – because so far they haven’t announced what proposal they’ll be bringing to the table. To be sure, there are many Republicans who share the President’s conviction that we need to act on reform, and there are several pieces of Republican health care legislation out there. Previously we were told this was the House Republican bill. Is it still? We look forward to hearing whether this the proposal they'll bring. The Senate Republicans have yet to post any kind of plan, so we continue to await word from them. As of right now, the American people still don’t know which one Congressional Republicans support and which one they want to present to the public on Thursday.

President Obama has been clear that his proposal isn’t the final say on legislation, and that’s what Thursday’s meeting is all about. But after a year of historic national dialogue about reform, it’s time for both sides to be clear about what their plan is to lower costs, hold insurance companies accountable, make health insurance affordable for those without it, and reduce the deficit. A collection of piecemeal and sometimes conflicting ideas won’t do.

As we said today, we’ll be happy to post the Republican plan on our website once they indicate to us which one we should post. We hope they won’t pass up this opportunity to make their case to the American people.

The Republican's don't have a plan for health care or anything else. Finally, someone is calling them on it. Read the rest of this post...

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

Two more days til the health care summit. The President has released his bill, which is mostly based on the Senate's bill. But, all eyes are on the GOPers to see how they'll behave -- or not. My guess is not.

The teabaggers are in a frenzy over Scott Brown's vote for cloture on the jobs bill. Twitter is still buzzing. Check out the tweets to @scottbrownma. This might slow down the "Draft Scott Brown for President" efforts. Besides Harry Reid, the other person who is very happy about this vote is Mitt Romney.

The House Armed Services Committee is holding a hearing with the Chief of Staff from the Air Force today. Tomorrow's witnesses are the Chiefs from the Navy and Marines. The Army Secretary and Chief of Staff for the Army are testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee today. While the subject is the budget, DADT repeal will probably come up.

So, plenty to keep us busy today... Read the rest of this post...

Goldman Sachs upset their deal with Greece went public

And for good reason. They're trying to spin the episode as another routine budget event but as we all know now, the modern Wall Street deals are nothing like the deals of yesteryear. Wall Street loves trying to associate old time finance with the complicate and risky garbage that they sold the world in recent years. At this point, who believes anything they have to say?

The right wing Greek government who did this deal in hopes of pushing the problem out to another government deserves plenty of blame as well, but Goldman does not deserve a free pass. And to play the "everyone else was doing it" card is amazing.

Goldman was by no means the only bank involved with these types of instruments. These transactions were consistent with standards of behaviour and measurements used by the European community.... It is clear with hindsight that the standards of transparency could have been and probably should have been higher."

Concerns over rising Greek debt exploded into a full-blown crisis this month, as financial markets pulled down the value of the euro on fears that the Greek government could default.

Mr Corrigan, a former head of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve, testified at Westminster yesterday on how to prevent a future crisis. He said it was a "wrenching human experience" to disagree with the former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Paul Volcker, now an aide to President Barack Obama, who has proposed new rules to curb proprietary trading and hedge fund activities by major banks.

Read the rest of this post...

UN report highlights growing problem of electronic waste

Who really knows what happens to our old computers or phones when we replace our old models? Individuals alone are substantial enough but when businesses upgrade, there are immediately thousands of old machines at a time. Moving forward, manufacturers are going to need to consider this issue much more than they do today. The Guardian:

Despite a number of conventions aimed at preventing the indiscriminate dumping of e-waste, the problem is snowballing, with billions of people now regularly using advanced electronics.

The problem is particularly acute in parts of west Africa, where ship-loads of e-waste are dumped on a daily basis and scavenged by children who break down the electronics to recover valuable metals that they can sell.

Kuehr said the issue was vitally important for countries where economic growth is highest and dumping most prevalent.

"It's definitely in the countries which have substantial increase in consumption – countries like China and India, which are still substantial targets for illegal imports of e-waste," he said. "The same applies for countries like Nigeria."

Read the rest of this post...