[eXpat]

Even in those solitary moments you may like to remember that you are above the peasants. ..

Florida Ponzi Schemer Scott Rothstein's Golden Toilet
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') contractor on Rothstein's home sent Bob Norman of The Broward-Palm Beach New Times photos from inside the Fort Lauderdale mansion from a recent renovation, revealing the gilded throne and other over-the-top luxuries:

...All the furniture was imported from Italy and a team of folks came from Italy to assemble it on site. He had a theater room that had a custom made 2 tiered bed that was upholstered with cheetah print and all the hand carved wookworking [sic] on the walls. He had a cigar lounge with all hand carved woodworking as well and with two 70-inch plasmas screens on robotic arms and four 42-inch plasmas on arms. There were two industrial strength smoke eaters in the ceiling and the wall were full of pictures of him with politicians and celebrities. It was a shrine to himself not unlike his office. There was an elevator. A massive diesel generator to keep all the audio visual and computer networking equipment up and running in the even of a power outage. There had to be well over $2 million spent on audio/visual/home automation/networking equipment in the house.

[rangerone314]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dorlomin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dukey', '[')color=red]Objectionable text deleted.[/color]
The whole system is a fraud. If the fractional reserve shenanigans didn't exist, the economy wouldn't be in the Expletive deleted. right now.

[eXpat]

Shareholders demand Goldman rewards
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')nvestment bank under fire again as investors protest at record payout of $717,000 to staff
Goldman Sachs has had to defend itself from angry taxpayers, regulators, the government – and now its own shareholders.

Some of the US investment bank's largest investors are furious about the New York-based firm paying record remuneration to its staff – pay and bonuses are estimated to average $717,000 (£435,000) each for 2009, the biggest payout in the firm's 140 years.

Investors claim that now profits are back, rewards should go first to shareholders because they suffered the cost of the credit crunch more than anybody else.

"Most of the losses were for equity shareholders," said a fund manager at a large investment firm. "If they had cared about the preservation of equity value, the crisis wouldn't have been nearly as bad as it was. It would be in everybody's interest, the taxpayer and of banks themselves, if management's interests were more aligned with shareholders.

[gollum]

What will it take for thinking people in this country to pull their money out of banks, and put it into tangibles? At what point will Americans just stop paying for this Expletive deleted.? Maybe everyine needs to stop paying on the cards, and drop the amount they work in order to not owe income tax?

[eXpat]

Is good to be a king banker...
Goldman Sachs bankers on course for $19bn pay and bonuses
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'G')oldman Sachs will ignite a storm of controversy in the new year when it reveals that its bankers are on course to collect pay and bonuses worth $19bn (£11.4bn), despite 2009 being the worst year for the US economy in 30 years.

The news comes as banks in Britain find themselves in the firing line after it emerged that 5,000 bankers stand to collect more than £1m each, sparking criticism from ministers who accused financiers of being out of touch as millions are thrown out of work amid recession.

[leaflight]

Sports players and musicians , provide entertainment and commercials among other things, bankers provide current monetary business and or commerce continous.

Bankers getting commissions/bonuses is not the problem as long as it dosent enable a few greedy ones , messing it up for the rest like the mortgages sold based on commission crisis, where some properties didnt exist in packages, and or some people should have never qaulified for the loan/mortgage.

You know the similarity of selling someone a lemon vehicle , and knowing it, to get a commission/bonus.

Like also alot of the exotic investment packages should have never been deemed triple a etc etc.As much as the clients and or the individual investments them selves did not have triple a credit and or it was not rock solid investment meaning the investment wasnt a artifically bubble overpriced to many times over period to at any bubble overpriced investment to get a triple a rating

Bankers as a profession and actual someone has to do it scenario are not the problem , credit given and bonds that should have never been is what created this crash and burn crisis.

Also when banks are borrowing and or in massive billons of debt and not soley into the lending business then ye see how insane this easy credit and bond system became.

Banks should have been regulated to be the banks the lenders not into the borrowers business.

Have you ever thought that when you walk into a bank that many of them those failing now, were on credit cards all the way to the cash in thier vaults as well,

What in the check were banks into the borrowing business more then the lending business for, easy answer the system became built upon a sand of credit and bonds, instead of mortar or rock solid assets to back up repayment or meet the finicial obligations of said business function, so hence the dysfunction and credit and bond crash and burn rep after rep the system is experincing.

Banks into the borrowing business is like a delivery pizza guy bringing you pizza of another name, yet it became worse than that as the crash and burn of the credit and bond based system unfolds the story is told.

The masses and some bankers not all of either got what they wanted, fast milk and honey and found out it dosent last, ye can learn this from the cows and the bees.

Resources and responsibilty are one, as much as patience and prosperity truly lasting.

I dont care to see a total system crash anytime soon for the sake of the ignorant and or innocent.However it is sad to see how much has crashed and burned already,however good also comes out of rough times as well somehow somewhere as universal history shows.

I have always been happy to see others truly happy , regardless of the money they make, they work for it, then they get it, they earned it.

[Stonemason]

Blaming this on capitalism is like calling the "People's Republic of China" Utopia. Classic slight of hand. Has anyone here actually read Wealth of Nations or Human Action or anything else of Von Mises?

[leaflight]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Stonemason', 'B')laming this on capitalism is like calling the "People's Republic of China" Utopia. Classic slight of hand. Has anyone here actually read Wealth of Nations or Human Action or anything else of Von Mises?

[eXpat]

Whack a banker!
'Whack a banker' arcade game is a hit
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')nventor Tim Hunkin says the ''Whack A Banker'' machine at his pier arcade in Southwold, Suffolk, is proving a great investment.

Punters are promised a ''truly rewarding banking experience'' and use a mallet to hit as many bald pop-up figures as they can in a limited time.
'You pay 40p to hit as many bankers as you can in 30 seconds as their heads pop up. It's based on an older game called 'Whack a Mole','' said Mr Hunkin, 58.

''It's proving very popular. I keep having to replace worn-out mallets.''

He added: ''The bankers are bald and all look the same because that's how I think people see bankers - as faceless.

''And, of course, the bankers never really lose. If you win the game a banker's voice says: 'You win. We retire. Thank you very much to the taxpayer for paying our pensions'.''

[eXpat]

For top bonuses on Wall Street, 7 figures or 8?
Despite calls for restraint, payouts may rival those of the boom years
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'E')veryone on Wall Street is fixated on The Number.

The bank bonus season, that annual rite of big money and bigger egos, begins in earnest this week, and it looks as if it will be one of the largest and most controversial blowouts the industry has ever seen.

Bank executives are grappling with a question that exasperates, even infuriates, many recession-weary Americans: Just how big should their paydays be? Despite calls for restraint from Washington and a chafed public, resurgent banks are preparing to pay out bonuses that rival those of the boom years. The haul, in cash and stock, will run into many billions of dollars.
Industry executives acknowledge that the numbers being tossed around — six-, seven- and even eight-figure sums for some chief executives and top producers — will probably stun the many Americans still hurting from the financial collapse and ensuing Great Recession.

Goldman Sachs is expected to pay its employees an average of about $595,000 apiece for 2009, one of the most profitable years in its 141-year history. Workers in the investment bank of JPMorgan Chase stand to collect about $463,000 on average.

[Pretorian]

I am sorry if that causes a public roar but thats not much money if you live in downtown NY. A decent living, sure, but not a pool of gold. Its not that they earn a penny of it though.

[eXpat]

Party is still on!!! 81% rise .
Goldman Sachs bankers 'set for 81% rise in bonuses'
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'G')oldman Sachs bankers are forecast to enjoy an 81% rise in their pay and bonuses for 2009, even though the bank may be forced to respond to political pressure by reducing the amount of money it sets aside for employee payouts in the fourth quarter of the year.

Goldman is braced for a furore this week when it completes the US bank reporting season on Thursday, following the row sparked by rival JP ­Morgan when it disclosed on Friday that it would be handing out $9.3bn (£5.7bn) in bonuses and salaries for 2009.

By the time Goldman unveils the size of its bonus pool, Citigroup, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley will all have published their figures. They are likely to show that chancellor Alistair Darling's estimate for £550m of revenue from his 50% bonus tax was too cautious.