Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, earns $2.5 million a year in compensation. Here's what he thinks: I’M the chief executive of a publicly traded company and, like my peers, I’m very highly paid. The difference between salaries like mine and those of average Americans creates a lot of tension, and I’d like to offer a suggestion. President Obama should … Read More
GOP Fiddling (Around) While Rome Burns
Krugman: A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old clichés about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts. It’s as if the … Read More
Executive Compensation
Kenneth D. Lewis, the chief executive of Bank of America, took home more than $20 million in 2007. Of that, $5.75 million was in salary and bonuses. Vikram Pandit, who became chief executive of Citigroup in December of 2007 and previously held other senior positions at the bank, made $3.1 million. Richard Wagoner, the chief executive of General Motors, made … Read More
The “Wasteful” Stimulus Bill
From CNN. Having scoured the bill from top to bottom, the House Republicans put out a list of items that they found wasteful — i.e., "pork" that won't lead to job growth — in the Obama stiumulus bill. They are: • $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy … Read More
Who Gets The Money?
State-by-state breakdown of per capita spending — state by state — from the $825 billion Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Compare that map to this one from the WSJ showing the change in unemployment over the past year.
History Lesson
What Republicans faced in 1932: a desperately unpopular GOP ex-president; a new, ambitious Democratic president whom large numbers of people believed could do no wrong; tired veterans of the past decade at the helm in both chambers; an economic meltdown for which they were blamed; and a depressing want of bodies. How did they respond? By challenging FDR's economic stimulus … Read More
How Can We Miss You If You Don’t Leave?
I never understood the phenomenon of Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher aka "Joe The Plumber". I don't understand why he was touted by McCain and Palin as the typical American, as if that was supposed to impress the typical American (who need only look in a mirror to see a "typical American"). And clearly, Joe the Plumber didn't impress the typical American. … Read More
Harsh Realities
Ouch: The number of jobless American workers receiving unemployment checks rose to the highest level since the government began keeping records in 1967. A Labor Department spokesman said the number of Americans drawing jobless benefits for a week or longer rose to 4,776,000 in the week ended Jan. 17, the latest data available. The number eclipses the prior mark set … Read More
The CBO Report
So the Republicans went out in front of the cameras yesterday to let the world know something. According to a non-partisan study by the Congressional Budget Office, the money from Obama's stimulus plan won't be spent until quite some time. The media picked this up and reported it as fact. The Washington Post, for example: Stimulus Projects May Be Slow, … Read More
Sacrifice
I know in these hard economic times, we have been called upon to make sacrifices. But really. This is just too much to ask: If you seem to be tearing through those Girl Scout Thin Mints a little faster this year, you aren't imagining things. Fewer cookies were packaged into Thin Mints, Do-si-dos and Tagalongs boxes this year, and the … Read More
“This Miracle Brought To You By Unions”
Salon: The fiercest opposition to the loan proposal — and nearly a third of the 35 votes against ending debate on the deal — came from Southern Republicans, and the ringleaders of the opposition all come from states with a major foreign auto presence. Not coincidentally, nearly all of those states — except Kentucky — are also "right-to-work" states, which … Read More
Now We Know Where The $700 Billion Dollar Bailout Went
Actual screenshot from Amazon for a bunny hutch: Full story here. Note: The bunny hutch has now been discounted. It's now selling for hutch
Obama Plans Tax Cuts, Contra The West Wing
Yeah, I know. You're happy about this: President-elect Barack Obama plans to include about $300 billion in tax cuts for workers and businesses in his economic recovery program, advisers said Sunday, as his team seeks to win over Congressional skeptics worried that he was too focused on government spending. But you shouldn't be. Listen, your economic problems are (or will … Read More
Upside Of A Down Economy
Some insanely good deals. Check out the markdown
The U.S. Will End In 2010
I guess that prediction would be laughable if it came from Nostadamus or some modern-day equivalent soothsayer. But the guy who is saying is a respected analyst. Then again, he's Russian: Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited … Read More