Leveller

here we go again…

Originally uploaded by loungerie

American Republican’s say that because Ms Pelosi was mean to them, they decided to throw their toys out of the pram in a fit of pique. Apparently throwing themselves into a major recession it is more important so as to preserve their cherished beliefs in Reaganomic market voodoo.

Perhaps the next time they vote on this they’ll add a clause to grab back the $36 billion in bonuses the city spiv’s paid themselves last year.

EDIT: following the vote $1.2 trillion was wiped of US share prices.

That’s a big whack out of everyone’s 401K and all because Nancy made the Republican’s cry.

Naturally they have fucked it up from the start. This isn’t designed to be a card for some white middle class lass, oh no. This is a card specifically designed for someone with black skin, more than likely male, and with a name akin to Mohammed or Ishmael.

Bastards!

Tracy Island by Fender5

London Mayor Boris “Rupert” Johnson is considering building an artificial island in the Thames Estuary as an answer to overcrowding at Heathrow Airport.

A spokesperson for the mayor said Rupert “wants to undertake a study to establish the feasibility of the idea once and for all and is in the process of examining the best way to take the study forward.”

The previous proposal to build a new airport at Cliffe in Kent was rejected due to environmental concerns and the fact that the area is a major winter roost for seabirds the danger to aircraft taking off and landing was decided to be far too hazardous, and was even advised against by BAA.

Perhaps the idea of aircraft falling out of the sky onto the people of Sheppey rather than Cliffe isn’t so bad an idea, Cliffe is after all only just across the river from East Tilbury, and well Sheppey is Sheppey.

send in the clowns

The US Federal Reserve bails out AIG with almost $100,000,000,000 as its stock value crumbles. But what has brought this giant of insurance down? The answer appears to be that the value of AIG’s investments known as Credit Default Swaps (CDS), apparently these are supposed to be a form of insurance policy (AIG’s business is insurance) against bad debt.

At the end of last year concerns were being expressed that the value of these insurances were grossly overestimated resulting in a write down of $4.88 billion.

It seems that not only was AIG’s insurance risk assessment lacking but their Crisis Management Services just wasn’t up to the job either.

Over the last couple of decades companies like AIG have charged huge fees, and paid themselves massive bonuses, for advising on, and selling derivative investments like Credit Default Swaps.

Today many suspect these derivatives are worthless.

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Workers leaving Merrill Lynch

Lehman Brothers file for bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch taken over by Bank of America, and stock markets plunge. Will any lessons be learnt? Of course not:

Lets run that again. These banks paid in bonuses an average of $212,000 per employee in the year when everything went tits up. Of course that 186,000 includes all the secretaries, cleaners, and other ancillary staff. Some people at the top of the pile got $millions upon $millions.

Now don’t let these CEOs and the like kid you that their jobs are risky. The average UK worker is in the same job for 5.5 years. The average job span of a CEO is a month or two less. When these guys get sacked in addition to the $millions they get in compensation, they immediately take up paid directorships in other companies, when the average worker losses their job they are out of work for 15 weeks.