"I own your white honky ass" said President Obama to Mr Olbert Saratova, a Wall Street CEO, as he explained that Wall Street salaries would be capped to a mere $500,000 whilst they lived off government money.
"Slap us in chains and call us slaves", complained Mr Saratova who argued that being a CEO is a demanding and skillful job that deserved million dollar bonuses based on their unique skills.
"What next, will he expect us to cancel our trust funds and off-shore accounts and start paying tax?"
"This is about as close to communism you can get", argued various free market gurus. "If Obama continues to make these kinds of outrageous demands, I think we should pull an Ayn Rand and go live in the Caymen Islands. Let's see how long America lasts without a hedge fund."
"We may now be nothing but slaves, but you need us", added Saratova.
Please hum along to Saratova's Wall Street Blues:
Ah've bin working hard all day, all night.
Not got much money, but it's alright
Hedged on stocks from the ASX
Brought the Yen to stop deficit
Expenses are high, with bonuses low
Can't make payments on the bungalow
Sold the Merc and rode the bus
Couldn't get a seat, made a big fuss
But they don't like our kind
No they don't like our kind, oh Lord
They own my white honky ass.
"Slap us in chains and call us slaves", complained Mr Saratova who argued that being a CEO is a demanding and skillful job that deserved million dollar bonuses based on their unique skills.
"What next, will he expect us to cancel our trust funds and off-shore accounts and start paying tax?"
"This is about as close to communism you can get", argued various free market gurus. "If Obama continues to make these kinds of outrageous demands, I think we should pull an Ayn Rand and go live in the Caymen Islands. Let's see how long America lasts without a hedge fund."
"We may now be nothing but slaves, but you need us", added Saratova.
Please hum along to Saratova's Wall Street Blues:
Ah've bin working hard all day, all night.
Not got much money, but it's alright
Hedged on stocks from the ASX
Brought the Yen to stop deficit
Expenses are high, with bonuses low
Can't make payments on the bungalow
Sold the Merc and rode the bus
Couldn't get a seat, made a big fuss
But they don't like our kind
No they don't like our kind, oh Lord
They own my white honky ass.
On a slightly serious note, some of these banks and other outfits had their tails twisted to accept the Govt largess so as to give credibility to the packages, others took it for just that little bit more security and others took it so they wouldn't have to tighten the belt too much.
ReplyDeleteAs for the $500,000 CEO cap, it's an absolute guarantee that really big firms will get around it to retain their best and brightest. These are multibillion companies who have CEOs in demand in the market place.
What the Govt is missing is these are not the CEOs that got companies into trouble.. but the bright replacements of the old hacks.
Finally, it's crazy to trash the very people with the best chance of pulling the country through the recession.. very H Clark like.
JC
Hmmm, JC, the US media beg to differ with you:
ReplyDeletehttp://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Business/story?id=6479322&page=1
And where is the evidence that the old execs have gone? Only a handful seem to have fallen on their sword. Which suggests your claim that these "bright replacements" are about to "[pull] their country through the recession" is kinda dubious.
Wall St execs must be the first billionaire slaves in history. How fortunate their worker 'owners' must feel. Especially now the workers are being made redundant, so they'll have lots of time to go visit their 'slaves' at their executive palaces on Long Island.
Mass unemployment in the States looks set to cause havoc. No wall street, wipe your arse on a Yankee green back Nobama.
ReplyDeleteJC, I basically agree. I posed the question in an earlier post wondering if Obama was merely going to shake his fist, or take some sort of action, and how leftist that action might be. Obama furious at fat cats
ReplyDeleteI don't thinking government capping salaries is a solution, and the tax laws in the USA being what they are, there will be workarounds.
On the other hand, I fully appreciate the sentiment behind the idea, and decided such sentiment had a nice sense of irony.
As Squaredrive said, we are looking at very rich slaves.
The problem is that the system is set up to reward such professions disproportionately to the personal risk they supposedly take on.
The pendulum appears to be swinging the other way, and will likely swing too far.
However, there's going to be very little sympathy from the man on the street, and for good reason.
Zen,
ReplyDeleteThere's very little sympathy for the politicians either.. the people know that ultimately it was that mob who caused this. Congress went on a most expensive retreat just recently in a parody of the behaviour of Wall st. No wonder it's rating is just 27%.
And Obama is down to 62%, less than George Bush in 2000 and about average for Presidents in the first 100 days. His stimulus package has failed and will have to be reworked, he has little control over his own party and he's in serious trouble over Afghanistan.. Iran, Russia, North Korea and Europe have kicked his arse as well.
Sooner, rather than later he's going to have to do something seriously good, not waffle and pander.
JC
It's one of the drawbacks of living in the government's pocket by accepting its immoral "bailout." Nothing comes with no strings attached.
ReplyDelete