bank shot

a recent report documents that 116 banks have admittedly received 188 billion dollars so far as part of the bailout plan. shockingly, or not so shockingly, if you dig what american capitalism is all about, not one spokesperson would detail how the money they received had been spent. all of them said they were choosing not to disclose the information. one guy even said that he didn't want it disclosed that he didn't want to disclose the information!

now, isn't this the irony of ironies? if you go to a bank to ask for a loan, you need to make a credible presentation, which includes full disclosure of your income and future economic prospects. they, on the other hand, when they spend our money, need to document nothing. however, we have do some information on the subject of ceo pay and bailout figures for various banks. in 2007, the average paid to each of the 116 banks' top executives was 2.6 million in salary, benefits, and bonuses. lloyd blankfein, president and ceo of goldman sachs, took home nearly 54 million in compensation last year. the company's top five executives received a total of 242 million. this from a company that received 10 billion dollars in taxpayer money on october 28th. john thain, ceo of merrill lynch, topped all corporate bank bosses with 83 million in earnings last year. thain was the former ceo of goldman sachs. thain took over merrill lynch in december of 2007, and made the amount of money he did even though the company lost 7.8 billion dollars in 2007. he was given a 15 million dollar signing bonus, and an additional 68 million in stock options. now, if the company lost close to 8 billion last year, we can assume that thousands lost their jobs, that interest rates went down, that less loans were given to people who requested them, and other things that negatively impacted masses of people. but, thain still made his 83 million. some crisis for him. merrill lynch also received 10 billion in taxpayers money. goldman sachs' tab for leased cars and drivers ran as high as $233,000 per executive. jp morgan chase chairman james dimon ran up a $211,182 private jet travel tab last year when his family lived in chicago and he was commuting to new york. the company got 25 billion in bailout funds.

it seems safe to say that this bailout money will further aid these ceo's and major stokeholders to live lives of shameless excess, as the majority of people struggle to get by. if we were concerned about the economy, we would directly aid the people who most need it. this would be done by funding organizations that actively work to support the poor. it would mean putting our tax dollars into public works in order to create jobs and to improve the conditions of our communities. it would mean creating a progressive tax structure and beginning the process of appropriating wealth from the super rich and redistributing that wealth amongst the masses of people. it would be done by drastically cutting the military budget and ending our wars in iraq and afghanistan. it will not be done by throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at the financial institutions who were instrumental in creating the crisis we are supposedly trying to solve. but, of course, they don't want to solve the real economic crisis, which is caused by endemic and systemic poverty. rather, they want to further their goal of corporate domination, which is led by the financial and oil sectors of the economy. that is why they fight these wars. that is why they throw money at banks while people lose their homes, while children die of hunger, and while millions of us go without health care. yes, they practice a particular kind of economics.

and it ain't mine or yours.