The Drag Queen Posse

AOL News:

"When the government agreed to bail out Wall Street, the goal was to provide funds to shore up banks' capital bases so they would start lending again. It wasn't to help them fund the bonus pool. But estimates run that as much as $70 billion will get paid out in bonuses to Wall Streeters this year. That amount equals 10% of the $700 billion bailout.

Neel Kashkari, a 35-year-old former Goldman Sachs whiz kid who believes in free markets, is getting the job at the Treasury Department of dispersing the government's $700 billion rescue.

(What? We couldn't find someone a bit older with political and financial experience?)

AIG sent salespeople on a lavish luxury retreat at the same time it was getting billions in government aid. The retreat at the St. Regis resort in Monarch Beach, Calif., cost AIG $440,000 and came right after it received a $85 billion line of credit. Even worse, it planned another lavish retreat soon after. But when the press caught wind of that one, it was soon cancelled. (Gee, we wonder why?)

Isn't Getting to Keep Their Jobs Bonus Enough?

Some of Lehman's top executives got signing bonuses to stay at the banks that acquired their divisions in bankruptcy proceedings. The Financial Times reported that Nomura, which bought Lehman's European and Asian divisions, gave bankers cash equal to last year's bonus if they agreed to stay at Nomura for a year, for example. Given massive firings on Wall Street, were those payouts really necessary? (Uhm, we're saying fuck no!)

2008 has been a year of watching CEOs at failing financial firms get fired -- but with a few million to soften the blow. The compensation they enjoyed was at least theoretically tied to profits earned while they were running the show, but the profits have vanished by now. (Gee, where did they go? Some offshore account they use for other corporate tax loopholes we're guessing, that allows massive corporations to live off of Federal welfare.)

Shouldn't Banks Use the Money to Help the Economy?

Nope. It turns out that banks can use the money however they want. Banks that are getting government bailout money are contemplating using it for other things -- like buying other banks -- not adding it to the lending pool so they can make more loans and end the credit squeeze. Next up, insurance and car companies may get to tap into the funds. (In other words, GM and other car manufacturers will now ask the Feds for a bail-out for their shitty, gas-huzzling cars. Does anyone see a pattern here? We feel it - it's a giant wire brush fucking us up the ass asking for more money even we don't have.)

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