I can't believe it's not a democracy!

Another reason I was not going to become a partner at a law firm:

Law Firms Submit Joint Letter to SEC to Oppose Shareholder Nominations to Corporate Boards. Because I'm not a fucking greedy bastard who doesn't understand that a corporation's law firm is supposed to represent the shareholders--i.e., the fucking owners. I hope that people realize that what these law firms are doing is expressing the interests of the CEOs and other high level executives who think that the corporations exist to make them obscenely rich. Time for some blow back from shareholders.

Madoff gets 150 years for massive investment fraud. Part of the reason for the "harsh" sentence? U.S. District Judge Denny Chin stated: "I simply do not get the sense that Mr. Madoff has done all that he could or told all that he knows." My thought (primed by some things I've read on the news sites and blogs) is that Bernie was helpful to people who wanted to hide and transfer money. Namely, mob money, people in illegal weapons sales, wealthy bastards hiding their funds from taxing authorities, etc. And maybe other players? In any event, he's not talking. I hope that the forensic accountants and investigators can unravel his trail.

And my friend John sends me this post by Jon Taplin, a Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, at his blog: Madoff and the Mafia. Taplin writes that his suspicions that Bernie Madoff's business was laundering money for the mafia appeared to be confirmed by Harry Markopolos, the man who tried to warn the SEC about Madoff years ago, who speculated that some of Madoff's "silent victims" probably included investors of dirty money. But another interesting thing that Taplin adds is a lovely photo of Richard Grasso, then president of the New York Stock Exchange, metting with a Columbian FARC commander. WTF?

The economic crisis is over!

Goldman to make record bonus payout. Well, for the greedy fuck heads who created it in the first fucking place. The Guardian reports: Staff at Goldman Sachs staff can look forward to the biggest bonus payouts in the firm's 140-year history after a spectacular first half of the year, sparking concern that the big investment banks which survived the credit crunch will derail financial regulation reforms.

A lack of competition and a surge in revenues from trading foreign currency, bonds and fixed-income products has sent profits at Goldman Sachs soaring, according to insiders at the firm.

We need to increase the highest marginal tax for amounts over, say, $1,000,000 to 70%. Period. Oh, and investigations and prosecutions. Can't forget the investigations and prosecutions. I'm sure Obama will do that right after getting Congress to enact a universal health bill and repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Wow, only took five months to go from "Yes We Can" to "No We Won't."

I'm torn. On the one hand:

AIG lawyer: Ex-top exec plundered retirement plan. Well, that's nasty. On the other hand, Hank Greenberg, the former sociopathic CEO, took the money not from the secretaries, rather he allegedly plundered a "fund [that] was set up decades ago to provide incentive bonuses to a select group of AIG management and highly compensated employees that they would receive upon their retirement." I can't make myself cry over this. You?

Well, he's talking the talk, but will Congress walk the walk?

Obama vows tougher overseas tax policies. Reuters reports: President Barack Obama vowed on Monday to overhaul tax policies that he said reward companies for shifting U.S. jobs overseas and allow wealthy people to evade taxes using offshore accounts.

About fucking time. People wonder why jobs were going overseas and they bought the bullshit meme that it was simply cheaper labor and less regulation. No, it always included the tax deferral that encourage U.S. companies to park money overseas--which they invested in factories there. That is, companies didn't have to pay current U.S. tax until and unless they "repatriated" the money--i.e., brought it back to the U.S. So they went to states that were willing to offer them lower current taxes in exchange for all those yummy jobs, formerly jobs held by Americans. So, if Obama really intends to do this--kudos. The question is whether Congress--and I am including democratic movers and shakers--will be willing to to say no to their masters. Not. Holding. My. Breath. Because you know this will get watered down.

Oh, and Obama wants to put more money and bodies into the IRS to go after Americans who hide money in overseas banks. This is a no brainer. The government loves to trot out a few miscreants from time to time to show the masses that the rich have to follow the rules too. Only thing, only a relative handful will be indicted. The others will take advantage of a tax amnesty program (under which they pay back tax, interest and a reduced penalty) and we will never hear their names. But we should.

Why can't we do this here?

Alistair Darling to publish blacklist of UK's biggest tax evaders. The Guardian reports: Tax cheats who deprive the exchequer of sums greater than £25,000 are to be named and shamed by the government in a crackdown on evasion to be unveiled by Alistair Darling in the budget on Wednesday.

I recall that when the Liechtenstein banking scandal broke--i.e., wealthy people hiding money they did not report in Liechtenstein banks--that the Italian newspapers published the names of the Italians who were fingered. Why wasn't that done here? We have a few names from the UBS scandal--two have been indicted--but what about the rest? Sure, more names will come out as some wealthy pricks will refuse to fess up and pay the tax, interest and a reduced penalty, but what about the others? It's our treasury, our revenue, why can't we know who among us thinks only the little people must pay their taxes?

Yes, the reason for the economic crisis is so obvious:

Bill Moyers interviews William K. Black, former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s. And the reason-because there is only one--is this: unrelenting, unchecked greed. You can watch or read Moyer's important interview of Black. Black doesn't say anything I didn't already know, but he says it in such a concise way and with the benefit of years of experience dealing with bank regulation and an encyclopedic understanding of the monstrous greed that created our current mess. Note that he supported Obama in the 2008 election, but he is very disturbed by the actions--or is it inactions--of Geithner, et al.

Thanks to John for the link. I should add that John and I became friends when we worked together at the Resolution Trust Corporation, which was charged with cleaning up the S & L mess.

Looks like private security may be a growth industry:

Scorn Trails A.I.G. Executives, Even in Their Driveways. And unlike the way they treat the average worker, I'm guessing these wealthy assholes can't afford to nickle and dime the people hired to protect their greedy asses.

Link via Atrios.

Another day, another couple of greedy motherfucking bastards indicted for stealing money:

Money managers accused of $550 million fraud. Reuters reports: Two money managers who oversaw investments for Carnegie Mellon University and other institutions were arrested on Wednesday on charges of running an estimated $550 million, decade-long swindle, the latest in a wave of big financial fraud cases.

Paul Greenwood, 61, and Stephen Walsh, 64, managing general partners of broker-dealer WG Trading Co with main offices in Greenwich, Connecticut, were charged by U.S. prosecutors with conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud.

The pair, both former part-owners of the New York Islanders National Hockey League team, are accused of using client money as "their personal piggy-bank" to fund lavish lifestyles, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

I repeat: take away every fucking dime they own, but don't jail them. Instead, make them work at Wal*Mart and garnish part of their wages to pay back whatever hasn't been satisfied from their former assets. In short, let those motherfuckers live like some of America's hardest working, underpaid and desperate for the rest of their fucking lives.

String them up:

US steps up pressure on UBS in bank secrets case. It's not enough that the filthy rich got even richer over the last 8 years as the rest of us suffered with stagnant wages or job layoffs. No, they had to hide money in a Swiss bank (and others) to avoid paying tax on income to the tune of billions in tax (see below). And it wasn't one or two filthy rich bastards--the government wants information on at least 52,000 Americans. Said John DiCicco, the acting assistant attorney general,"[a]t a time when millions of Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, and their health care, it is appalling that more than 50,000 of the wealthiest among us have actively sought to evade their civil and legal duty to pay taxes."

Those names had better be released for the public to see. When the scandal involving at least 1,000 Americans hiding money through Liechtenstein banks broke, the Italian newspapers published the names of Italians who tried to evade tax, but here? Nothing. We need to know who these people are so that we can stay on top of this story. More importantly, we need to get assurance that the filthy greedy assholes who did this pay their back tax, interest and punishing penalties, because if the Senate subcommittee on investigations is right, the tab is about $100 billion in lost tax revenue per year.

The hammer has to fall swiftly on these bastards so that it will scare future generations of parasites to toe the line. Or they can try to weasel their way out of this and then be surprised when the guillotines are rolled into their town squares.