Bankers leading Treasury by the nose ring

Who is calling the shots? Treasury or the bankers themselves?

When the bankers called “Help” Treasury threw the rope and pulled them in yet they turn around and jump back into the turbulent water and say to Treasury, “Take your rope, I can’t live the way I want to live with this dang rope attached. As for your silly stress test we are passing with flying colors and we will flaunt that publicly though you don’t want us to. We will accept your increased FDIC guarantee, too, because no rope is attached to that blessing.”

In other words, keep your nose out of our business.

Despite my strong desire to sustain a capitalistic, free market system and keep it alive and well, it would be so tempting — were I in such a position to do so — to kick out the executives and say I will run your stinking bank.

It’s just another demonstration of how these powerful execs care nothing about us on Main Street.

Perqs for the Execs keep on coming

From Michelle Leder:

In office towers across Manhattan, there are more than a few former chief executives whose ex-employers continue to pay for their office space and secretarial services.

Among the better-known examples are Charles O. Prince III, who once led Citigroup, and E. Stanley O’Neal, previously head of Merrill Lynch.

Now, Richard D. Parsons, the former chairman and chief executive of Time Warner, joins this esteemed group. Judging by the company’s recent proxy, Mr. Parsons’ new office appears to be a very nice space.

In the filing, Time Warner disclosed that it would spend $776,000 this year to provide Mr. Parsons with office space, secretarial services and furnishings “comparable to that which he was provided during his employment.”

Michelle’s website that keeps us informed of such attrocities is footnoted.org.

Stimulus bill is easy to criticize

One comment I heard just today from a leading Republican “conservative” was about the inclusion of $600 million in this stimulus bill to purchase “green” vehicles for government officials.

Bad item to pick for criticism. Aside from the “green” aspect, this move is going to purchase vehicles — I seriously doubt Hondas and Toyotas will be selected — from our struggling auto companies. This is a stimulus, for crying out loud. It will keep jobs alive. If these people are still working they are still spending.

Stimulus. See how it works?

Why do we have legislative committees?

Rep. Denney prevents bills from reaching a crucial committee.

House Speaker Lawerence Denney is not allowing any local-option tax bill to be considered in the House unless it contains a constitutional amendment, a restriction opposed by many local-option backers. “That has been my position, that if it’s not a constitutional amendment, I’m not interested,” Denney told The Spokesman-Review.

The committee chair cowers to keep his seat.

House Tax Chairman Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, said he has clear instructions from the speaker. “If there’s no constitutional amendment, it goes to him,” he said. “I may get it back later.” Asked if he had any problem with that, Lake said, “That’s his call – I work for him, he’s my boss.”

“I work for him”???? Really? He pays your salary? He votes you into office. Why do we have these committees? What purpose does a chairman of a committee serve? Does he just call up Mr. Speaker and ask, “What’ll I do now?” “Is it ok if our committee takes a potty break?” What’s the big deal about being able to tell your buddies that you are the Chairman of the most powerful committee in the Idaho House of Representatives when you don’t do anything but play sycophant to the House Speaker? Big stinking deal!

High paid foreign workers benefit from our bailout

Not only do they get jobs Americans could have they get some of the high paying jobs.

Senator Chuck Grassley furious about:

The dozen banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.

“In this time of very, very high unemployment … and considering the help these banks are getting from the taxpayers, they’re playing the American taxpayer for a sucker,” Grassley said in a telephone interview with AP.

We may optimistically assume that these practices will stop because of our horrible economy, trusting that our brilliant corporate leaders know we Main Street Americans need jobs.

Well, we thought that we learned lessons from Enron and MCI and Tyco, too didn’t we? HA!

Let’s face it, our elected invertebrates just don’t help us at all. I think Sen. Grassley is one who is growing a backbone. You go, Chuck! We need you!

Microsoft cutting American jobs

Microsoft announced it will be eliminating 5,000 employees over the next 18 months with an immediate dismissal of 1,400. CNet News informs us that Senator Grassley is at least one elected official concerned about American employees:

Microsoft has been urged by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), a leading critic of the H-1B program, to protect the jobs of U.S. workers over foreign workers. In a letter last week to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Grassley demanded that U.S. workers get priority in keeping their jobs.

Legally, as the article explains, Microsoft has to treat H-1B employees as equal to all other employees. Grassley’s emphasis is that Microsoft may have a  “moral obligation” to keep as many American citizens employed as they can rather than preserving the visa holders.

State leaders maybe do not comprehend “ethics”?

We’ve discussed the need for ethics reform in our state legislature. We realize it needs to be upgraded a bit.  Now we read in the Statesman that our newly appointed Lt. Governor, Brad Little, is holding a fund raiser for his race in 2010. Certainly this will attract lobbyists to rally to Mr. Little’s support (to the tune of over $6K so far). Obviously this is during a legislative session. So far nothing surprising in this news.

But here is a surprise: Mr. Little thinks it is not proper for elected officials to receive lobbyists’ contributions during a legislative session. As quoted in this article:

“[I]t’s just the best practice, when the legislative process is going on, there’s no campaign contributions.”

When questioned about this comment of his, Mr. Little now says:

“Guilty as charged,” Little said. “It may appear a little disingenuous, but I never even thought about it.”

Though not directly quoted in this article the Statesman attributes Senator Kate Kelly as saying:

Little’s contention that he “never even thought about it” is ample indication that lawmakers have grown so accustomed to the present system where lobbyists can mix influence with money that they rarely give it a second thought.

For the past few legislative sessions, Senator Kelly has introduced various ethics reform bills most of which have not even been discussed within the Senate State Affairs Committee. With this type of control preventing ethics reform bills from even getting out of committee, Lt. Governor Little’s chances of ever having to break a tie vote on one of these bills is about the same as his canceling his upcoming fund raiser.

Where’s Bucky now?

R. Buckminster Fuller tried decades ago to teach us that bigger is not always stronger. True, his application was in buildings, but it applies to businesses as well.

I firmly agree with Professor Don Holley of Boise State University who was quoted in the Statesman yesterday regarding the mega-mergers in our banking industry: “If they are too big to fail, they are too big to have.”

Agreed!

Then in another small article tucked away in the Statesman we read:

“Pfizer to buy Wyeth for $68B; 20,000 jobs to be lost”

We continue our path of allowing bigger companies and simultaneously eliminating jobs. This should have been capturing our attention for the past 20 years and especially today, doesn’t it hurt your eyes (and heart) to read “20,000 jobs to be lost”?

Legislative leaders utilize “tender negotiations”

Get outta town!!

In Dan Popkey’s article today about Governor Otter’s decision to not mention local-option taxes in his State of the State address, the Governor explains it was removed because the leaders of our state legislature preferred to use “tender negotiations”.

Our leaders describe arm-twisting in their secret, closed caucuses “tender negotiations”?

Representative Mike Moyle perhaps is the “leaders”:

“I told him I was concerned about that being brought up,” Moyle said Monday. “I’d much rather work it out rather than fight it in the State of the State or the newspaper.”

Wouldn’t want to discuss this big issue in public now would we Mister Leader[s]?

Idaho’s lobbying tainted (again) by bribe (kinda)

The Statesman’s Dan Popkey reports that the realtors’ lobby pulled a sizable, pledged contribution from a candidate who voted contrary to the realtors’ wishes. The good side of this story is the candidate, Joan Cloonan, worked in the light, not in the dark alley where the lobbyists are often found. She reported it to the Attorney General’s office and also consulted other legislators.

More good news is that Representative Raul Labrador is “drafting a bill” to make such an action a felony.

Indicating support for such action from the Senate is Senator Kate Kelly who for years now has been attempting to reform ethics in our legislature. She refers to the present law as “pretty toothless.”

Hopefully, Rep. Labrador will deliver a bill that will give our state some teeth.