Ok maybe you got a clue from the title but if you missed it here are the details. It seems Citigroup was concerned about not having enough corporate jets to satisfy their executives so with a portion of the bail out money they received in December they went out and purchased a “…French – made luxury jet…” “…There are just nine of these top-of-the-line models in the United States…” Wow must be nice to have a custom made ride to the Alps for some winter skiing and a little get away to the Bahamas when your tired of the cold in New York.. Maybe they are trying to a new start up to replace Jet Blue and you and I will get $99.00 round trips to Orlando, I don’t think so!
And if you like that you will love this guy;
If you have missed all the news last week you missed John Thain’s Bonus binge and his high priced decorating (trash receptacle $1,400) as he was arranging the buy out with Bank of America of Merrill -Lynch. With TARP money, oops your money.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/b…
Well it seems that the culture of, entitlement and to large to fail, has totally corrupted the minds of bank executives through out the entire sector of America capitalism. Today I believe that all the regulation in the world would have little effect in altering this course. Only nationalization will allow for the wholesale removal of those boards and executives that continue to believe they are special and above average Americans.
Now should nationalization be a long-term process I hope not, I do believe that to turn such a system sole over to the government will have the potential to swing the pendulum in the other direction and we risk Politics creeping into our monetary system. I think the risk of elected officials having even remote control of Capital and who and under what terms it is doled out will not benefit our economy. I do say this not trying to impugn those currently in office and trying to figure a way out of this mess but to look down the road and at past history to understand the potential for manipulation of a government program to effect a political out come.
Nationalization would allow for a safe and orderly revamping of the corporate structure of our major banks certainly some executives who have shown restraint and a clear understanding of the challenges would remain and those who have historically placed only profits and opulence ahead of moral and ethical judgment would be removed and their golden parachutes cancelled. This could be done by a comprehensive review by the treasury department and allowing the facts and the record to speak for itself . We would see as a result an ability to directly pump bailout money into the economy in fast effective lending and a system of allowing risk not profit to determine the direction of business growth and expansion. This does not have to eliminate risk but to understand it and keep it at a manageable level. If there is one thing we certainly should have learned by now that ignoring risk will doom us to repeat the exercise of the present over and over again.
Well their you have it I am on the bus for nationalization now I hope we do it swiftly and effectively and get the system back on it’s feet with a health set of regulations. Until this happens we will see more French Plane’s over American Sky’s with our American Corporate Logos splashed down the sides.
As Usual Just my Opinion
Today’s NY Times has an interesting discussion of the debate over nationalization. WoburnDem’s observation that we need to rid ourselves of executives who are so corrupted by their greed and inflated egos that that they have lost all sense of their obligations to their communities, to their shareholders, to any standard of professionalism and ethical behavior is right on point. My dad was a Texas banker from 1960 to nearly the end of the century. He built a mulit-million dollar bank from a corner office in a drug store to a towering giant in the community — and he did it by lending to homeowners who couldn’t get loans to fix up rundown houses. He visited them on the weekends, he encouraged them and gambled on them, but he took the full measure of their character and kept track of every dime. The nights before the bank examiners were due was always a time of great stress because every line had to be in order in the bank’s books. He even wrote two books — one on the duties of the board of directors of a bank, and one on the best practices of bankers. When he retired he became an expert witness in the savings and loan debacle — most famously testifying against Neil Bush, brother of George, in the Silverado disaster (can anyone say Lincoln Savings — have we learned nothing?).
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p>It is inconceivable to me that in the span of literally a few years we have gone from the time when an honest bank president would be worrying over bank examiners to a time when banks don’t even keep their own loans on the books. My dad refused to even own stock in his bank until he retired — he thought it was a conflict of interest, so others got rich off his hard work. And my dad was hardly alone. There were crooks and con men of course, always have been and always will be, but there were men and women of intergrity on every street corner, building up the civic organizations, setting exmaples for how one should conduct oneself in business and in life. The past decade or so this nation has shown its ugliest side in all respects. Thank heavens we have a leader who can harken us back to our better selves.
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p>And yes, as my dad would say, let’s fire the sons of guns.
David Kay Johnston, in one of his earlier books (I forget which one), pointed out that the tax rules practically bet corporations to buy private jets. He noted that you can see a big jump in the amount of corporate jets out there (by orders of magnitude if I recall correctly) after these rules were enacted. Here is DKJ in a recent article:
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p>I don’t know about the economics of buying the new jet, but it could very well be that under current tax laws it is actually more economical for them to fly private in general.
Why the actions in Corporate America are tailored to the belief of entitlement. This must change if we have the hope of the bailouts actually having the effect they are intended to. In the Majority of the posts thus far on BMG a portion of all the money has gone toward perks and programs that will likely never benefit Main Street and that the Economic policy thus far has been the trickle down of the 80’s.
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p>This is why I am saying it is time to nationalize the banks and clean out and clean up the circulatory system of our Economy. Failing to take action will only lengthen the down turn.
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p>I want to offer just one added point
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p>Look at the attacks waged on large projects and the article after article about the big dig and Bechtel Parsons Brinkerhoff, whom do you think is going to get a piece of infrastructure reconstruction? The facts are the size and scope of the overall need is so great who else could manage it. Want to bet they are standing on the sidelines with the pom poms. Which is why we need to make a real example out of the Banking system and make clear that other industry that looks at this event as purely profit opportunity will be dealt with in as harsh a manner. Think about.
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p>As Usual Just my Opinion
… to do with a “belief of entitlement” in “Corporate America” so much as lobbying money by aircraft manufacturers and sellers for tax legislation that would inflate their market demand.
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p>BTW, contrary to popular belief, the Big Dig was money well spent. If I offered you $16B ($1.2B more than what was paid) back, but everything goes back to the way it was, you’d be a fool to take it.
The rules impact the declared valuations of travel expenses so greatly that it has a decent impact on ‘executive compensation’. As such, I’m sure that more than just the manufacturers and sellers wanted in on this.
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p>More stuff:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/f…
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p>http://books.google.com/books?…
I think looking at what we got for the money I think you may have a few takers for the money back to fill in the whole and a chance to do it again and get it right.
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p>Maybe a loop around bostong and 5 lanes in each dirction would be supported to day instead of a situation that cost 6 Billion and did very little to reduce the traffic problem we had before. Now it is better but 16 billion better? No I don’t think so.
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p>Ok on your point of Lobbying aircraft manufacturers maybe the sting on this would not be as sharp if they purchased an American made Airplane and kept an industry here going a bit longer with TARP money but the real salt is they bought overseas. Riddle me this how does that help our economy?
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p>As Usual Just my Opinions
… the Big Did didn’t just deal with a traffic issue. There was probably $7B or $8B worth of straightening out the mountain of underground infrastructure spaghetti as the old as the hills that had to be done anyway, and more expensively overall the longer you waited.
Remember my earlier post as to “what about the subsidiaries” – well just like “bailout money” our kids will owe to China is paying for luxury jets, $1400 trash baskets and slick John Thain bonuses – it is being wired over seas. Enough already!
What I cannot understand is what type of controls or reporting requirements are expected of the companies receiving government funds. This seems to be lacking any oversight whatsoever.
At least they could of bought an American made plane!
multi-trillion dollar decisions based on my emotional response to a waste of a few million.
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p>How about you guys?