Rudy Giuliani should just shut the fuck up
I swear. I used to actually like this guy. And now just the sight of him makes me clench my fist. Earlier today, Judith let him out of his cage long enough to spew his unique brand of idiocy about Wall Street bonuses. From CNN...
When Giuliani ran for the GOP presidential nomination, pundits said his stances on issues like abortion rights separated him from self-proclaimed Reagan Republicans in the field. Not up for debate is Giuliani's alignment with the 40th president on "trickle-down economics," the theory that keeping the rich wealthy creates jobs and solvency for the lower classes.
"Those bonuses, if they are reversed, are going to cause unemployment in New York," the self-described fiscal conservative said. "I remember when I was mayor, one of the ways in which you determine New York City's budget, tax revenue is Wall Street bonuses.
"Wall Street has $1 billion, $2 billion in bonuses, the city had a deficit. Wall Street has $15 billion to $20 billion, New York City had a $2 billion, $3 billion surplus, and it's because that money gets spent. That money goes directly into the economy. First of all, it gets taxed as income. Secondly, it gets taxes again when somebody buys something with it."
Look, I'll concede that technically, this is all true. Wall Street guys infuse the city with cash through income taxes and retarded levels of consumer spending. And I've stated here previously how interesting it'll be to see how the end of the ridiculous Wall Street bonuses will change the tapestry of the city. Will it lead to a desperately needed re-infusion of color and character as the cost of living recedes and makes it easier for non-banker types to live here? Or will complete chaos break out as basic services provided by the local government are forced to scale back? Both perhaps? Whatever, the fact remains...this can't continue. New York City just has to fucking deal with it! It's either adapt or die, just like anything in life. The game has changed and New York has to change in order to survive. Period.
Giuliani's comments completely ignore that fact that the bonuses now being paid out are being subsidized by American tax dollars which have been infused into a system on the verge of bankruptcy brought about by grossly irresponsible financial decision-making, such as paying out BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF BONUSES TO EMPLOYEES OF COMPANIES THAT WERE BLEEDING CASH!
Fuck these people! For the longest time it's irked me to no end that these cheesedicks were pocketing millions each year without really contributing anything to society at large other than their own absurd consumer consumption. For doing little more than playing chess with other people's money, they've lived like kings while people like teachers and scientists struggle just to put hot meals on their table. Look, I'm a free market guy and have never advocated the government stepping in to try to redistribute that wealth, but the second they accepted federal dollars to stay afloat they lost all free market privileges in my mind. The party's over assholes, and you've got nobody but yourselves to blame! You got yourselves all cracked out and then burned your own house down when you passed out and left your crack pipe burning at the foot of the drapes. So eat a big bag of dicks and like it.
Giuliani's statements here also illuminate a larger part of the problem in the country...politicians acting in their own self-interest rather than the interest of the country at large. As the mayor of New York, Wall Street sucked his decrepit cock on a regular basis and funded his campaigns for mayor and president, so it stands to reason that he'd be the guy out front and center to defend this horseshit. But politicians like Giuliani are part of the problem, and it is my sincere hope that they'll be flushed down history's shitter when this is all said and done. I doubt it'll happen, but a boy can dream, can't he?
12 comments:
Can you imagine how much worse this would all be if McCain had won?
Sigh...
@tokyo cowgirl...if mccain had won, john thain would probably be the treasury secretary right now.
Funny, I saw this on CNN and was just about to send it to you. These idiots just don't get it.
It takes $20 billion in bonuses to keep the economy afloat? Why not spread that money around by raising peoples wages? A rising tide raises all ships. It's not voodoo fucking magic!
You can take 100 million people and raise their wages a few thousand bucks a year, which they'll go spend on shit they don't need, or you can give $20 billion to a select few people of which some will get spend and most will be invested.
I liked your analogy of the drug user for Citibank, by the way. These retards just don't fucking understand the new reality that they caused.
I loved this quote from Sen. Claire McCaskill:
"We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer," an enraged McCaskill said on the floor of the Senate. "They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out $18 billion in bonuses."
Heck, I'd like to send YOUR remarks over to CNN, Cajun Boy! Wouldn't that create a bit of a stir!!
Of course I'm not going to do it, because they're YOUR remarks, but boy, I like your turn of phrase...
"You got yourselves all cracked out and then burned your own house down ....."
Can I get an Amen brothers!
RJ
I don't understand why they gave our tax dollars to the banks in the hope that they would then lend it back to us (which they aren't doing)? If we are going socialist- give me a loan directly.
Also- this bullshit were we can't have an AIG implode should mean that none of these fuckers gets to be that big again. Yet, there they go, using the money to consolidate the market by buying up other banks. That's really fucked.
mckaskill is wrong...they are not idiots
if someone handed you free money, would you say (to borrow the crazy fake birthing ladies line) "thanks, but no thanks"?
of course not
wallstreet has never done what is best for america...that is why there has been oversight
greed is not good...it is destructive
there is no such thing as a pure capitalist society...it cant work...just as pure socialism and pure communism cannot work...human nature is at odds with all three
rudy is an idiot....he was always an idiot...an immoral fucktard
and i love how he continues to prove it
A few things...
1) Working on Wall Street is by far one of the hardest jobs out there. I'm not talking about the mortgage cowboys who fucked up the economy and worked 60 hour work weeks. I'm talking about the rest of us who busted our hump at the office for 80-120 hours a week with very little thanks and an annual base salary that some of my nursing friends easily exceeded. Not only that, large swaths of the economy would come to a halt without access to the financial markets. This is a fact. And if everyone could do it, everyone would. But most people look at the sacrifices necessary and say "no thanks", even given a healthy salary.
2) It seems like the word "bonus" is throwing most people off. On Wall Street, pretty much everyone from the back office guys in the copy room to the guy in the corner office, have salaries that are pretty moderate (and obviously that word is highly subjective) as their annual salaries are really supposed to take into account the annual bonus. Without a "bonus", I would have been better off my first few years on Wall Street working the same hours at McDonald's than I did working at a bank. There is no way anyone would work as hard as I did, sacrifice as much of their life, sleep with their blackberries 365 days a year, miss almost all maor holidays with their families at a moments notice for the base salary. I had friends who quit despite the promise of the bonus. In fact, when the firm gives you your "bonus number", they present it as "Total Compensation" which really is a more sensible way to look at it. You work towards a targeted yearly compensation.
3) Yes many of these banks blew through their capital when the mortgage market blew up and dragged down many of the other operating units. Nevertheless, that does not mean there weren't people (actually, a majority of employees as those implicated in these type of deals were no more than 2%....maybe as much as 5% of any given bank) still working their asses off for their clients to try and get deals done (which became a Herculean task as the credit and financing markets dried up...the IPO market has been all but dead since fucking 2006). Now are you suggesting that if you are a Consumer Products investment banker and you get 5 deals done during the year and bring in fees of $10 mil to the firm (which would be 5 REALLY small deals) that you shouldn't get a cut especially when investment banks traditionally do not hang on to a lot of their retained earnings as the business model does not require it? That you gave up your vacations with your family, demanded your junior people to give up their lives, but fuck it the firm needs the $10 mil more so let's all sacrifice together and essentially get compensated half as much as your buddies at a private mid market brokerage? Do you see how that would create a disincentive to stick with this public company and as such there would be a drift of talented people away from these banks who work in the areas that can actually bring in revenue which does not seem like a good way for the gov't to get their money back.
But maybe it's just me. I have worked on Wall Street, Fortune 100's and private brokerages and am a bit biased. I just think the knee-jerk reaction makes everyone seem a little dumb about the topic. And I'm not even going to touch the whole tax revenue thing. If the incomes on Wall Street - which account for 28% of the city's tax revenues - are essentially halved or worse, I think we will be a long way towards MIA's dream of a less safe NY. It'll be fantastic! You can move back to New Orleans for the Law & Order and operating city government!
Haha, 'eat a big bag of dicks and like it'
Great post.
ae38 raises some good points. However... I worked in bars for over 5 years, starting as a grunt and winding up a manager. I worked 80-hour weeks, made thousands for the company, and when I made it to manager I actually earned the same wage as the head barman. He at least made tips, while I secured bookings and private hire deals with TV and film companies (we were in a prime spot) that netted yet more thousands at a time for the bar. Needless to say, I sacrificed pretty every major and every minor holiday, and every family occasion. As a salaried manager my twice-yearly bonus was based on like-for-like sales over the previous year. When we had a bad year, we got next to nothing.
You don't need me to tell you, you've had a bad year.
When the bar closed for 3 weeks for a refit, a lot of my friends there had their contracts terminated. The rest received an average (they worked this out as 32 hours, roughly half of what some of the guys would usually work) weekly pay. When they sold the land and closed the bar (thank Christ, I had already escaped) some of the managers were farmed out to other bars in the chain, but most of the staff were given their two weeks' average pay and sent on their way.
Maybe none of this is relevant; we're not talking about billions of dollars and the boys' club structure ensures that outsiders don't really know how it is. I just think that in most walks of life, when you fuck up, you take the hit.
ae38 may not have fucked up personally, just as I didn't fuck up, but when profits weren't great, I didn't expect the rewards.
I personally brought in well over a million pounds for that company in cash sales alone, and what did I get when I left? An Aemkei shirt and a fuji finepix camera, the result of a whipround by the staff. So forgive us little people if we don't really sympathise when you don't cream hundreds of thousands a year for working through Easter or missing your grandad's birthday.
@ae38.... If you worked 100 hours per week at US$9 per hour (which is roughly what McDonalds pays), you'd earn $46,800 a year. Was your base salary less than that working in banking?
This article (http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/investment-banking-salaries-mcdonalds/) does an interesting comparison of investment banking and McDonalds wages.
Also, I'm not sure whether I'd call working 100 hours per week in banking a "sacrifice" as you're not doing it for the greater good, or someone else's good, you've just chosen to work those hours in that industry to get ahead and lots of money. (I work unpaid overtime so I won't get fired (that's my bonus) and I don't think of it as a "sacrifice", just what I have to do to keep my job.)
This is an awesome post. I think the crack pipe analogy is perfect.
All due respect, ae38, but nobody is criticizing bonuses for anybody other than the top dogs on Wall Street. Everybody with a brain gets that bonuses are part of the pay structure for middle management and lower ranking professionals on the Street. It's the notion that the boobs who didn't bother to notice that they were setting up a domino chain of CDOs and credit default swaps are using taxpayer money to maintain their absurdly posh lifestyles. More insidious than the bonuses, however, is the practice of linking pay to share prices. That gives executives a disincentive to think about long-term consequences, as their pay is based on short-term gain. As for Rudy, he probably doesn't know anybody with an annual income of less than $500K/year; his mocking of community organizers at the Republican Convention is pretty illustrative of that.
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