It’s well known that many Bear Stearns shareholders are not too happy that they may be asked to bear at least some portion of the cost of rescuing the financial markets from aftershocks of a Bear Stearns bankruptcy. Many believe they’d fare better in bankruptcy. Politicians are also lining up to take advantage of the government’s role in the rescue-through-buyout plan, calling for greater regulation. But it’s not just shareholders and politicians. Outrage over what is widely seen as a bailout is spreading to the broader public, including girls obsessed with celebrities, sex and fashion.
Over at Jezebel, Moe Tkacik has penned an impassion plea for Ben Bernanke to stop aiding Wall Street. It’s rather long on passion and short on analysis but it gets one thing right: there’s a great irony that our the masters of financial system, which has been shucking off regulations for years, have suddenly discovered the need for close government supervision because of the fragility of finance.
Anyway, here’s Moe, who writes in prose that would make even Bess Levin blush:
So fuck the Street, Ben Bernanke; just this once, just for, like, a quarter or something. You don’t have to play rough; I’m not asking you to nationalize any industries or institute land reform or anything, just give them a little scare. They chose this path, you know. They chose to worship Ayn Rand and wear those Paul Smith shirts and pay zero money down on their Hamptons summer homes and obnoxiously, whenever confronted by someone like myself at a bar, claim that the Market Solves Everything. Let the market solve this one for them. People are eating dirt for dinner in Haiti, Ben Bernanke; you can let Bear Stearns go to bankruptcy court.
If I don’t get bailed out, than you can’t have your little car loan or way-too-big-for-your-means credit card.
:)
Paul Smith shirts?
Do they mean “Adam Smith ties”? or is Paul Smith the guy who puts little crocodiles on polo shirts?
NN Paul Smith is UK groovy. Check out the store at Fifth and 16th, a haunt of a lot of advertising graphics design types in that nabe.
What is it with the stupid people on the Left blaming the “free-market” when any critical thinking person could see that all of this fallout is the result of significant government meddling? A “free-market”, by definition, means zero government meddling. This entire credit crunch is the fault of people who think picking and choosing government interventions is a good idea. The market does solve everything: that’s why the people who made bad investments are getting their clocks cleaned–the market is trying to clean up the mess after 6 years of binging on useless dollars.
eating mud pies is the new atkins. remember kids, thin is in.
Any “bailout” which prevents the general collapse of the global financial system while still wiping out the equity holders of the firm in question should be OK with even the most staunch libertarians.
“If I don’t get bailed out, than you can’t have your little car loan or way-too-big-for-your-means credit card.
:)”
^ This
This guy is probably one of those obnoxious DOUCHEBAGS that hangs around the bar like a fucking loser sitting in the corner ogling at women while getting rejection after rejection.
Moe: From Wall Street To You, Douchebag, KISS MY ASS!
Now PAY YOUR FUCKING CREDIT CARD BILL ON TIME so you don’t blow up some ABS’s.
Fucktard.
-mrp
About Haitians Eating Dirt.
Actually, it is pellets made of some kind of clay that, as it turns out, has a high concentration of minerals: my wife did it as a child. The practice can be found in parts of Africa too. It is not really different from aging Americans taking a mineral-supplement pill once a day.
That said, many Haitians do go hungry.
So that in spirit, if not in the letter, the post was correct.
Speaking of ultra-reactionary left analyses, did anyone see the coverage on CNN Monday night on the Bear Stearns “bail-out”? Tom Foreman’s failed to get any of the basic facts straight, railed against executive pay, and showed a segment of Angelo Mozilo testifying at Congress, as if that had anything to do with Bear Stearns – JP Morgan.
But doesn’t a free market economy help everyone – such as the Haitians? Lower levels of new home construction has reduced its demand for clean fill, hence allowing the price of dirt to fall – a win for dirt-eaters everywhere?
At least the people of Haiti aren’t battling irrational obesity and throwing perfectly good food away.
I totally agree with her point, and I’m one of the lawyers that helped you all put this crap together. The government shouldn’t kick in money to save them. Not at all. Everyone at Bear should get fired, and the clawback provisions in the bonuses should be exercised. Investment Bankers are notoriously short-sided, and now that the sky has started falling, there they are, asking for government handouts like welfare. Well, I’m sorry. If you weren’t smart enough to save some of your ridiculously high salaries and bonuses over the last 5 years when times were great, then you too deserve to be poor like the secretary whose 401(k) you blew up over the past year. She says thank you by the way. If you’re really that smart, like you all claim to be, then fix it, develop something new, and I’ll gladly bill you to put it together.
KLW-
My mistake. Just a bit on the ‘grumpy’ side this morning pending consumption of my overpriced Starbucks frappythingywhateveryoucallit.
-mrp
The government only got involved when it realized it was going to start getting charged high-teens yield to raise muni bonds.
Government intervention or regulation a few years ago would have averted this crisis. After the fact it will have little relevance. Wall Street will adapt to new regulations/oversight and find A WAY AROUND IT. That’s why they get paid so much. It is their FUNCTION. Only government intervention earlier in the cycle could have prevented this but then what do you want from a $40K/year government employees??
mrPink, you need to quite ogling.
A bit off topic:
Here’s something that made me chuckle this morning when reading it for the first time, on Don Luskin’s blog:
“SHELBY STEELE NAILS OBAMA”
All I saw was ‘Steele’ and ‘Nails’ and for some reason thought about that porno star named Lexington Steele. Twisted, yes.
-mrp
One question one comment..
Q: Is the govt kicking in money, or just putting up its good name as a guarantee?
Comment: If the intervention prevents a total rout and more pain and less income earned and less taxes collected, then its not welfare but a good business decision.
MrBrown:
Kiss my ass you idiot.
Sincerely,
-mrp
Here’s an idea, instead of the government kicking in $30B to cover Bear’s incompetence, they just give that $30B, in cash, evenly, to everyone that lost money in their retirement savings that was invested in Bear Stearns stock, or didn’t have a retirement savings at all. Oh yeah, excluding those that actually worked at Bear Stearns. And then let the thing go into bankruptcy.
moe’s point is right the fuck on. over here in energy we blow funds up all the time. wall street’s full of pussies. the real ballers are in Houston.
– celtic tiger
Pink: Isn’t it Remington Steele? Did you see “Steele Ranger”, where he plays a humpy park ranger who comes upon a lost hiker…. GAnalYst
The problem is that the $30B their kicking in, will basically be going directly as profit to JP. I mean, the deal pays for itself even without the Fed backstop. So basically, when companies lose money, the government should just give them a multi-billion dollar injection. No, they should go out of business. It’s called competition. It’s called a market. IBankers live off of it, they should die off of it, too.
guest @ 10:37, PLEASE stick to posting on NYT. I remember some poster who was outraged that the government gave $200 billion to BSC on Friday and then another $30 billion on Sunday and then JPM bouth it for $200 million – and the Wall Street people pocketed the other $230 billion of taxpayer money (would be kinds sweet though, come to think of it!)
Was that you?
The govt never GAVE cash to anyone, no more than it ‘gives cash’ to the countless millions who have agency mortgage loans. If you dont get that, the once again, please go and comiserate with your comrades on NYT. Leave this place alone.
And EVEN IF the government WERE to give money to the Street – the Street contributed massive chunks of money to the government in the first place! So if you no name welfare mamas are all living off of Wall Street money, once in a while the Streeters should also have a shot at their OWN MONEY!!!!!
Let’s deconstruct this post.
“I totally agree with her point, and I’m one of the lawyers…”
Well I should really stop right here, nuff said.
“… that helped you all put this crap together. The government shouldn’t kick in money to save them. Not at all.”
Exactly what money is the government “kicking in”? They’ve put a loan guarantee in place, which means in theory gov’t money could be at risk, but as yet they haven’t put in one thin dime.
“Everyone at Bear should get fired, and the clawback provisions in the bonuses should be exercised. Investment Bankers are notoriously short-sided, and now that the sky has started falling, there they are, asking for government handouts like welfare. Well, I’m sorry. If you weren’t smart enough to save some of your ridiculously high salaries and bonuses over the last 5 years when times were great, then you too deserve to be poor like the secretary whose 401(k) you blew up over the past year.”
Have you not read one article about this? Bear employees owned 30% of the company! The CEO who presided over most of the mess lost a BILLION dollars! A large part of Street bonuses are paid in restricted stock to keep bankers from being short sighted. Bear employees will be by far the largest victims of this “bailout”. Perhaps half or more will lose their jobs. They appreciate your concern, but they are loving this “bailout”.
“She says thank you by the way. If you’re really that smart, like you all claim to be, then fix it, develop something new, and I’ll gladly bill you to put it together.”
And I’ll gladly pay that bill as it’s about 25% of my hourly earnings rate. Thanks for your input, now get back in the back office.
uh, Remington Steele was a tv detective series starting pierce brosnan.
to my knowledge, he has not done any pornos.
Yeah, you fucking Wall Street mobs hijacked Uncle Sam’s flight and the copilot Big Ben(as the pilot Greenspan fled) now have to choice to go to hell together…
Best line today – “the real ballers are in Houston”. I think they call the bartenders “Chief” down there too.
Come on, everyone knows the famous porno star is Lockhart Steele.
suits, are you aware what a liability is? when they pledged the 30yards it’s as if they spent it. coz we all know shit will still hit the fan nom atter what
A manager from Citic(Chinese bank who was about to purchase 10% of BS share) was interviewed and said:”thanks to the bureaucratism we did not finish the deal….”
suits is from back office, no doubt
Jennifer?
http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/w4m/611215027.html
Jeez….I went down the hall to take a “Bear Stearns” and crude oil dropped a dollar!
-The Forehead Slapper
I stand corrected. The star of “Steele Ranger” was CHRIS Steele (I googled it). I repeat, that scene with the hiker was AWESOME. GAnalYst
is it okay you are googling gay porn at work?
It is scary how little people actually understand about what is going on, particularly with respect to the “bail out” and the $30 billion.
Yet, oddly enough, the people who know the least seem to be the most confident that they have a plan to fix it all.
If I owned Hell and Houston, I’d live in Hell and rent out Houston. Now, get back to work, Mr. Ellis.
@11:18 I googled “Steele Ranger” and from the entries was able to get the name of the star. Trying to go beyond that might have caused career damage. GAnalYst
How many billions were written off by Wall Street firms because IBs, their execs and traders were Googling porn at work? Seems like the banktards should have encouraged porn Googling instead of subprime dealings. Just sayin’……
Hey Suits-
Restricted stock is another story, but you realize that a 401(k) plan that doesn’t allow an employee to diversify out of its stock is not in compliance with the tax exempt trust requirements under 401(a), and any employer that fails to give advice to their employees that they can diversify out of employer stock will be personally liable for the losses. So, assuming that they actually told them, then the employees are idiots for not diversifying. Aren’t you guys all investment people? I mean, we’ve obviously found out that “risk management” and “diversification” mean nothing to you, and your lack of understanding that a “pledge” may actually require it to be funded is well proven by the current market situation, but wow, you really don’t know much for being “resume” smart.
@10:55….Male bartenders in Houston are called “Hoss…”. Female bartenders in Houston are called “Darlin’….”
Male bartenders in Amarillo are called “Slick…”. Female bartenders in Amarillo are called “Sugar Booger”.
11:43 Calm down son. Those are esoteric points that only an ERISA attorney or some sort of plan fiduciary would be well versed in. (I’m guessing you’re the later).
Also, in my experience that “advice to employees that they can diversify out of employee stock” generally takes the form of a one liner buried at the bottom of some other communication about the plan.
Also, Alan Schwartz has 1M shares, including restricted stock, so there’s no way he lost a billion dollars. Secondly, anyone know how he was issued, in December, options with a $0 exercise price. I didn’t pull the SEC disclosure sheets, but that’s what it looks like, and that’s, well, to say it plainly, so far away from legal he should have slapped the cuffs on himself.
11:47 – Exec Comp lawyer, but have spent some time with qualified plans, almost everyone has to …
12:03,
Do you know who Jimmy Cayne is? Do you know about his involvement in LTCM, and the ramifications of that event that might be playing out today? If you don’t, why do you feel qualified to comment on this issue?
11:43,
As for the employees diversifying out of their 401k’s, you’re certainly correct, I’m just pointing out you can’t cry “Wall Street Bailout, No accountability, no ownership” on one hand while there was certainly plenty of accountability and ownership among those who are suffering the most from the “bailout”.
The Ayn Rand comment was spot on though.
Basically philosophy for people that couldn’t understand Neitzsche and have a subscription to Maxim.
No one @ Jezebel has any business pontificating about the Bear/JPM (or really any other non-gossip) wall street issue, same to how, oh, most of us have no business commenting on 99% of the crap on Jezebel…
11:20 pretty much summed it up
why is it that people think they have some sort of special finance world knowledge just because they read When Genius Failed?