DISQUS

shell · 8 months ago

And to think! I was "let go" from more than one contract job -- just for talking politics. (Of course, from the Democratic side.) No, I NEVER talked about politics at work UNLESS right-wing employees (usually higher-ups) were blathering on and on. I wouldn't curse, wasn't nasty. I was usually snarky.

And bang! I was gone. And this was in California. Why can't Republicans EVER play with even rules? They can only "win" when the deck is stacked in their favor.

You might say I should have learned my lesson and not EVER talked politics at work. Nope. IF the other side starts flapping their gums, they will get it from me. And who cares if I get fired? I never had a problem finding another contract -- I was good at what I did. And they, on the other hand, replaced me with dunderheads. So, who got the last laugh?

vkobaya · 8 months ago

I don't remember for certain, but seems to me that Geithener is Obama nominee who was a worry because they said he loved the taste of his foot. I think he is sucking on his foot again.

Older_Wiser · 8 months ago

That comment about Hugh McColl being "larger than life" was really funny. In real life, he's about 5'6". It probably didn't hurt him that he's married to Jane Spratt, the sister of John Spratt (D-SC), who is active in funding arts projects in the area, although much of the credit goes to Hugh McColl in Charlotte. He ran Nationsbank (which bought BofA) like the ex-Marine he is, insisting that bank employees not get distracted by community interests themselves, though. Guess he wanted all the credit--and he certainly got it.

I remember his machinations in acquiring smaller banks in the south; I worked in downtown Charlotte at the time and it was the constant street talk about his ruthlessness in establishing practices no one else had ever engaged in, beating the NYC bankers at their own game, and developing barely legal patterns of banking picked up by those bankers.

Yes, he was prominent in establishing little Charlotte, NC as Wall St. South, a development much hated by many in that community since it upset a lot of progress in race relations, and created a wider rift among the haves and have nots of the whole population in the city, and guaranteed 7 terms for the boyish Rethuglicon mayor, Pat McCrory, whose chief accomplishment was a light rail line from downtown to the city's southside, which raised the sales tax 1/2 cent to pay for it, but also making Charlotte #1 in sales tax in the state.

While the mayor doesn't have much power since the city has a manager-form of govt, he frequently used his bully pulpit for his pet projects, such as a new basketball arena and NASCAR museum, funded with city bonds. He ran for governor in 2008, speaking with Palin in SC and maintained his ties with the national party, but lost to Bev Perdue (D) who became the first female gov of NC.

bob_h · 8 months ago

The thing that would really worry me is what surprises the rogue traders at Merrill might have in store for him. Should the banks be conducting proprietary trading for their own accounts backstopped with TARP money? To protect the taxpayer investment, shut down the trading desks.

Gus Smith · 8 months ago

Economies will never get on track until this realization is implement - CEO'S, CFO's, and all personnel are workers. Salaries need to be stated and mission statements accomplished. No one is worth the millions that have been raked in, whether there is profit or not. Just do your job and get paid for work.

Jack Fannigan · 8 months ago

BoA CEO Ken Lewis is yet another example of the problem rather than a solution. He has run various banks into the ground and climbed the ladder of success. If this is success I really do not know how much more, we as a nation, can stand. If my resume contained information of failure after failure I would be tossed out of a interview. Mr. Lewis, you are a fraud and you eventually will be exposed as such.

Jason · 8 months ago

He's either retarded or brilliant in a mind bogglingly unethical way. I suppose it all depends on whether or not the government seizes BoA, a move that looks less likely from main street anyway. If BoA continues to be bailed out, he picked up a lot of assets, made the federal government pay for it and on top of that cut him a check. He goes through the new acquisitions like a buzzsaw, firing or selling whatever BoA doesn't want in a situation where no one can say they don't need to streamline and save some cash. BoA jacks up the fees and interest rates on debtors to squeeze out as much as possible until the storm of bankruptcies on the horizon arrives. Eventually when things turn around, BoA stands positioned to be the dominant player in the U.S. financial market with a hand in almost every financial transaction in the country pulling out a fee.

And if the bank gets nationalized, broken up and stockholders wiped out, fuck it, Lewis and the boys on top got their money. They just swoop in and buy up the pieces that are profitable, start spending in Washington again and the game starts over. Sure they lose a bunch of money in shares as well, but they still have the same and biggest percentage of the smaller pot at the end of the game so did they actually lose anything anyway?

Maybe that's why some of these big Wall Street players seem so tone deaf about things like 65k garbage cans. Everyone saw this coming, it was just a matter of how much can you squeeze out before the inevitable crash comes. Little people are just supposed to pay taxes, invest in their 401ks, and not look behind the curtain. At the gold plated trash cans.