Wall Street pay 'shifting back to where they were before'

Maybe the prediction of another crisis in 2015 isn't so crazy. There's no doubt that Wall Street pay hitting a new high is insane. This new record is completely the fault of both parties in Washington who have done much too little to protest the general public. Now that bailouts are built into the system, there's no reason to expect Wall Street to change its risky ways.

When it comes to paychecks, Wall Street's law of gravity is back in full force: What goes down must come back up.

In 2010, total compensation and benefits at publicly traded Wall Street banks and securities firms hit a record of $135 billion, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. The total is up 5.7% from $128 billion in combined compensation and benefits by the same companies in 2009.

The increase was fueled by a revenue rebound as the financial crisis recedes in the rearview mirror. At 25 large financial firms that have reported full-year results, revenue rose to $417 billion, another all-time high, even though last year's 1% increase was just a fraction of the industry's revenue jolt from 2008 to 2009 as trading and investment banking sprang back to life.

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Sam Seder & Thom Hartmann on Health care reform in the states & Citizens United

For my money, Thom Hartmann is one of the brightest analysts on radio, and he proves it in this interview. The interviewer is Sam Seder, on his new Majority Report podcast.

The first part of the discussion covers the health care bill and health care reform in the states. Even though they spoke before the recent federal court decision, the points are cogent. There's a move in several states to enact the kind of reform that progressives would have liked to see from Congress — single-payer, for example, or the public option — and Hartmann is optimistic. Stay tuned.

I'd like to direct your attention to the second part of the interview, which starts at 5:15. It's about the Citizens United decision, but it makes a historical point about Marbury v. Madison, the case in which the Supreme Court first asserted the right to decide that acts of Congress are constitutional.

I've heard many arguments that the case was correctly decided. I've never heard the argument against the Marbury v. Madison decision put so cogently. Listen:



The concept of Marbury v. Madison as the original sin, so to speak, drawing a straight line from it to corporate personhood and beyond, is compelling. You'd have to give up Roe v. Wade in the process; but you could also argue that the Court got ahead of the country on that one. Not that the decision was wrong; but that it was ill-timed. Not my opinion of the matter, mind you; but the case could be made.

I think the bottom line is this: You either agree with the notion of "activist judges" (judges who contradict legislatures) or you don't, and the consequences flow consistently, for good or ill, from either side of that decision. Your call, of course, but Hartmann makes an interesting case.

If you'd like to hear more about health care reform, Sam interviews Wendell Potter, the former industry exec–turned–whistleblower, near the end of the same program. The Potter interview starts at 34:30 in the show. It's an excellent discussion, one of Potter's best.

GP Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING MSNBC: Obama to ask Mubarak to step down in favor of Suleiman

This just in (though you could have guessed). Lawrence O'Donnell has just reported on-air that Obama will ask Mubarak to step down "immediately" in favor of a "transitional government" headed by Omar Suleiman.

I think we could have seen that coming. I see no print or web confirmation; I'll add more as it becomes available.

UPDATE: Here's the same from the New York Times. And here's the report from Huffington Post.

UPDATE 2: Look here for a discussion of the internal forces at work in Egypt.

UPDATE 3: Rachel Maddow is reporting that the systematic attacks on journalists means that "the government" is fighting back. This is true, and it's not inconsistent with Mubarak losing power. Keep in mind that Mubarak is just one of a gang. Just because he's on his way out doesn't mean that the forces allied with him, especially the police, aren't working to maintain their hold on power. Something to keep in mind; this is not a binary system.

GP Read the rest of this post...

Michael Jackson is alive and driving a taxi in Brazil

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Mubarak's war on journalists: Thugs threaten to behead ABC correspondent

One day after a group of citizen thugs attack western journalists, and others, in Cairo, the Egyptian government itself is suddenly arresting the entire foreign press. That pretty much confirms that the Egyptian government, aka Mubarak, was behind the attacks on the foreign press. We're to believe that the crowds did it on their own, but then the next day, magically, the Egyptian government is also treating the foreign media as the enemy.

I hope the Obama administration is letting Mubarak know that he is walking his way into a major cut off of foreign and military aid. in today's budget climate, who is going to have the nerve to defend giving Egypt a dime after this, if Mubarak or one of his cronies stays in power?

Two FOX employees were hurt while an ABC correspondent and three other employees where carjacked and threatened with beheading.

Two Fox News employees were seriously hurt by angry pro-government gangs as other journalists were attacked or detained by security forces as chaos and violence continued to inflame Egypt.

ABC News correspondent Brian Hartman and three other employees were carjacked on a road from the airport to downtown Cairo, and threatened with beheading, barely escaping with their lives.

And Mubarak's thugs arrested the Washington Post bureau chief and NYT reporters.

The Washington Post reported, citing multiple witnesses, that its Cairo bureau chief, Leila Fadel, and photographer Linda Davidson were among two journalists arrested Thursday morning by the Egyptian Interior Ministry. The Post later said on its blog that Fadel had called to say she and Davidson were released, but the two were separated from Sufian Taha, their translator and a longtime Post employee, and their Egyptian driver, Mansour el-Sayed Mohammed Abo Gouda. The two men were unaccounted for, the Post said.

Reporter caught in the grips of protest Anderson Cooper, crew attacked in Egypt Worn and battered after day of clashes Van plows into people on Cairo street

The New York Times reported Thursday that two of its reporters had been released after being detained overnight in Cairo.
Others said their gear had been confiscated. And the BBC tweeted Thursday, "Egyptian security seize BBC equipment at Cairo Hilton in attempt to stop us broadcasting."

Al-Jazeera:

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said his crew was also assaulted on Tuesday night after being mistaken for an Al Jazeera crew.

A reporter for the Al Arabiya network was kidnapped for several hours during Wednesday’s protest.
The violence has come exclusively from the Mubarak supporters: There have been no reports of pro-democracy demonstrators attacking or intimidating the media.

Egyptian journalists, too, have been the victims of angry mobs, all of them affiliated with the pro-Mubarak crowd. Sarah El Sirgany, an editor with the Daily News Egypt, tweeted that her brother was assaulted while trying to protect a group of reporters attacked by an angry mob.

An Al Jazeera reporter was held at knifepoint by a group of young men on Thursday morning. One man’s face was still bloodied from the previous night’s fighting.

Bloggers, too, have become targets: The popular Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey has reportedly been arrested (it's unclear by who).

A Swiss journalist is also missing. Read the rest of this post...

Canada backs down on usage-based billing for internet

This is definitely a victory, but don't be surprised if we see more attempts in the future, on either side of the border.

A controversial CRTC decision that effectively imposed usage-based Internet billing on small service providers will be reversed, the Toronto Star has learned.

“The CRTC should be under no illusion — the Prime Minister and minister of Industry will reverse this decision unless the CRTC does it itself,” a senior Conservative government official said Wednesday.

“If they don’t reconsider we will reverse their decision.”

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Top Senator on foreign aid says Egypt will be cut off if Mubarak doesn't leave

Typically, the appropriations bill aren't finished until September or October, so it's not clear whether Leahy means then or now. It is possible that the Congress could pass legislation prohibiting the administration from giving any more of this year's aid to Egypt, and/or cutting off all arms sales, etc.

Senator Leahy (D-VT), who made this threat, is the top Democratic Senator in charge of foreign aid. If he wants Egypt to be cut off, he runs a very good chance of making it so. More from ThinkProgress. Read the rest of this post...

Egyptian police detain Amnesty Intl. and Human Rights Watch staff in unknown location

I don't want Egypt to fall into chaos, and Iraq (and Afghanistan) taught us that getting rid of one despot does not democracy make. But with reports like this, I'm getting increasingly sick of Mubarak and am starting to get that "anything would be better" feeling. Hell, the feeling started yesterday when the thugs attacked. This is unacceptable. It's downright Soviet or Chinese (or now, Russian).

Two Amnesty International representatives have been detained by police in Cairo after the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre was taken over by military police this morning.

Amnesty International USA called on President Obama to immediately demand the release of the Amnesty International staff members. In addition, we have asked for a meeting in Washington with the Egyptian ambassador to the United States.

The Amnesty International representatives were taken, along with Ahmed Seif Al Islam Khaled Ali, a delegate from Human Rights Watch, and others, to an unknown location in Cairo. Amnesty International does not know their current whereabouts.

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Unemployment claims down

Small, but still positive economic news. CNNMoney:

The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits eased more than expected last week, setting the stage for the government's closely-watched jobs report due Friday.

There were 415,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended Jan. 29, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was down 42,000 from the week before, and better than the 425,000 claims economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected.

Continuing claims -- which include people filing for the second week of benefits or more -- fell to 3,925,000 in the week ended Jan. 22, a decline of 84,000 from the week before.

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Who are the forces in post-Mubarak Egypt?

Thanks to reader MG1, we're alerted to a series of articles that analyzes the complex power relationships and positioning that will determine the shape of post-Mubarak Egypt. First, from David Kurtz ("Into the Power Vacuum"; my emphasis throughout):

I've seen a lot of references today to "Mubarak's thugs." CNN has a good rundown on who instigated the violence in Cairo and points the finger in the general direction of pro-Mubarak, state-supported provocateurs. What you might call "inside agitators."

I don't have much doubt that that's broadly true. But it may miss a more important point. Mubarak could have cracked down on the protestors at any time over the last few days. But the violence didn't erupt until Mubarak's statement last night that he will not seek another term this year. Today's clashes were probably not the regime's final death rattle, but rather the beginning of the struggle to determine who emerges on top in the post-Mubarak era.

Very smart to be thinking this way. For background, Kurtz points us to an article that first appeared in Jadaliyya, "an independent Ezine produced by ASI (Arab Studies Institute), a network of writers associated with the Arab Studies Journal (www.ArabStudiesJournal.org)." The author is Paul Amar, and the article is provocatively entitled "Why Mubarak Is Out".

Its rundown of Egyptian power players and forces is fascinating — a smart insider take:

The “March of Millions” in Cairo marks the spectacular emergence of a new political society in Egypt. This uprising brings together a new coalition of forces, uniting reconfigured elements of the security state with prominent business people, internationalist leaders, and relatively new (or newly reconfigured) mass movements of youth, labor, women’s and religious groups. President Hosni Mubarak lost his political power on Friday, 28 January. On that night the Egyptian military let Mubarak’s ruling party headquarters burn down and ordered the police brigades attacking protesters to return to their barracks. When the evening call to prayer rang out and no one heeded Mubarak’s curfew order, it was clear that the old president been reduced to a phantom authority. In order to understand where Egypt is going, and what shape democracy might take there, we need to set the extraordinarily successful popular mobilizations into their military, economic and social context. What other forces were behind this sudden fall of Mubarak from power? And how will this transitional military-centered government get along with this millions-strong protest movement?

Many international media commentators – and some academic and political analysts – are having a hard time understanding the complexity of forces driving and responding to these momentous events. This confusion is driven by the binary “good guys versus bad guys” lenses most use to view this uprising. Such perspectives obscure more than they illuminate. There are three prominent binary models out there and each one carries its own baggage: (1) People versus Dictatorship: This perspective leads to liberal naïveté and confusion about the active role of military and elites in this uprising. (2) Seculars versus Islamists: This model leads to a 1980s-style call for “stability” and Islamophobic fears about the containment of the supposedly extremist “Arab street.” Or, (3) Old Guard versus Frustrated Youth: This lens imposes a 1960s-style romance on the protests but cannot begin to explain the structural and institutional dynamics driving the uprising, nor account for the key roles played by many 70-year-old Nasser-era figures.

To map out a more comprehensive view, it may be helpful to identify the moving parts within the military and police institutions of the security state and how clashes within and between these coercive institutions relate to shifting class hierarchies and capital formations. ...

A provocative and promising opening and a compelling read. The writer sorts out, for example, the various police and military factions — "each police, military and security institution has its own history, culture, class-allegiances, and, often its own autonomous sources of revenue and support".

One of the key forces to watch is the military, who are "disgusted by police corruption" and see themselves "as the blood rivals of the neoliberal 'crony capitalists' associated with Hosni Mubarak’s son Gamal who have privatized anything they can get their hands on and sold the country’s assets off to China, the US, and Persian Gulf capital."

See what I mean? Complicated. And fascinating.

I'll have more on this as I read and absorb, but this is a fruitful direction for study. The Middle East is transforming itself (and not in a Bush way). This could be one of those Moments in history that deserve the capital letter. And anyone who lets the U.S. press do their thinking for them will be led astray by the above-noted need for binary analysis. Don't join that crew, say I; better to be enlightened by thought than blinded by easy simplicity.

Offered for your enlightenment,

GP Read the rest of this post...

Reagan senior lawyer: Health care reform mandate is constitutional

From Huff Post:

Former Reagan Solicitor General Charles Fried delivered testimony during a Senate hearing on the "The Constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act," expressing, in no uncertain terms, his personal assessment that he is "quite sure that the health care mandate is constitutional."

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Video: Urgent message for Hosni Mubarak... LEAVE ANDERSON ALONE! (funny)

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Cenk on Obama and the $46.5 billion in tax breaks for Big Oil

Cenk is right, that Obama needs to take on this fight. Why should consumers who are being slammed at the pump, help prop up this profitable industry? Let Big Oil and the GOP re-discover capitalism. If the Democrats had more unity and were less bought off by Big Oil, reform might even be possible. Read the rest of this post...

# of GOP House bills introduced to create jobs: 0

See for yourself.

(H/t Matt Ortega) Read the rest of this post...

AIG CEO says they have a red state culture because they don't rely on handouts

Maybe Benmosche forgot that (a) AIG is only in existence today because of a massive bailout by the American taxpayers and (b) the Red States more often receive more federal dollars than they pay into the system. So yes, AIG certainly is more of a Red State kind of company.

He should move AIG to Alabama or Mississippi so he can enjoy the high level of education and quality living standards that only Dixie can provide. Texas may also be another prime choice since the governor is a hypocrite who funded 97% of the states deficit using stimulus cash, while criticizing the stimulus. Bloomberg:

American International Group Inc.’s mortgage insurer does more business in Republican-leaning states as it signs up more reliable customers than those in “more liberal” areas, Chief Executive Officer Robert Benmosche said.

“All of the states where we’re a leader, where we’re the No. 1 insurer, are red states, all of the states where we’re at the bottom are blue states,” Benmosche, 66, said yesterday at a conference in Washington. “Part of what we found out is that our model is about culture and it’s about the attitude in the public. And what we find is where there’s more of a tendency for people to be more liberal, more that the government is responsible for what happens to me.”

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Protests to continue in Egypt today, 5 reported dead from fighting yesterday

The window for Mubarak leaving quietly has clearly passed after the violence yesterday. Protests have already started today with both the pro-Mubarak thugs and the anti-government forces though there have been some reports that the Mubarak thugs have mostly left. Mubarak may have been hoping that the extreme violence would shut down the protests but it appears to be having the opposite effect. Al Jazeera:

Bursts of heavy gunfire aimed at anti-government demonstrators in Cairo's Tahrir [Liberation] Square, left at least five people dead and more than 800 wounded, according to reports from Egyptian television on Thursday.

"The real casualties taken to hospital were 836, of which 86 are still in hospital and there are five dead," Health Minister Ahmed Samih Farid told state television by telephone.

Sustained bursts of automatic weapons fire and powerful single shots began at around around 4am local time (2.00GMT) and was ongoing more than an hour.

Pro-democracy protest organiser, Mustafa el-Naggar, who's in Tahrir Square, said the gunfire came from at least three locations in the distance. He said the Egyptian military entered the square with tank squads to try to keep some order, but did not intervene.

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20,000 march in Yemen against president in 'day of rage'

Dictators throughout the region have to be having trouble sleeping these days. BBC News:

More than 20,000 anti-government protesters have gathered in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, for a "day of rage" against President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The demonstrators called for a change in government and said Mr Saleh's offer to step down in 2013, after more than 30 years in power, was not enough.

The gathering is the largest in two weeks of protests inspired by the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

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Punxsutawny Phil says an early spring

Ahhh, science. It's all settled then. Read the rest of this post...

San Francisco reviewing Yellow Pages ban

Not everyone has a computer so they should still be available, but printing the Yellow Pages is wasteful. When was the last time anyone with a computer and an internet connection bothered to use the Yellow Pages?

Under the proposal, phone companies and other distributors and publishers of Yellow Pages phone books would be barred from leaving them on doorsteps and in lobbies without receiving advance permission.

The Yellow Page companies could contact consumers by e-mail, direct mail, phone solicitations or in person, asking if they would like the directory. If the response is positive, the phone book could be delivered. Consumers also would be able to pick them up at a distribution center.

Unsolicited deliveries, however, could result in fines of up to $500 for each violation. The law would be enforced by the city's Department of the Environment.

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