Bob Benmosche wins where so many have failed.
Tag Archives: Wall Street Bail Out
No Armageddon, Not Yet
One of the things I’m surprised about is the resiliency of the economy. Things are flattening out, opportunists are making their moves on low prices in many industries. Business is starting up again, mostly because credit is beginning to flow out of the banks.
I really thought it would have been much worse. Given the environment of the crisis, regime change in Washington being the largest and most disruptive, I would have thought by now the pavement would have been fracturing, buildings collapsing, that there would be revolution in the streets.
I said this to Shannon yesterday as we walked cross town on the way to a meeting of one of her non-profit groups that works with disabled vets, and she stopped cold in the middle of Park Avenue.
“You? I can’t believe it….
Big Heros Don’t Solve Small Problems
Back when I was in commerce we’d watch a young executive making a play for relevance and import and say, “Big heros don’t solve small problems.” It’s a version of the old “make a mountain out of a mole hill” idea, but much more dangerous if you let it get out of hand.
On April 3 Eamon Javers at Politico reported on Obama’s meeting with the nation’s finance executives (Inside Obama’s bank CEOs meeting) One could call it a staff meeting since everyone in the room now works for Obama.
The description of the meeting went…
“Dimon (JPMC CEO Jamie Dimon) also insisted that he’d like to give the government’s TARP money back as soon as practical, and asked the president to “streamline” that process. But Obama didn’t like that idea — arguing that the system still needs government capital. The president offered an analogy: “This is like a patient who’s on antibiotics,” he said. “Maybe the patient starts feeling better after a couple of days, but you don’t stop taking the medicine until you’ve finished the bottle.” Returning the money too early, the president argued could send a bad signal. Several CEOs disagreed, arguing instead that returning TARP money was their patriotic duty, that they didn’t need it anymore, and that publicity surrounding the return would send a positive signal of confidence to the markets.”
But you see all this isn’t about confidence in the economy, is it? The government has its hooks in the banks now and it is not going to let go.
Ginsberg Pays Taxes
They are Looting My Tax Dollars!
Neil Cavuto, who can be like a rabid dog off of its meds, dressed down Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) Tuesday over the “Pay for Performance Act,” a bill Grayson is pushing on the Hill. You can’t miss the clip, it’s all over the web.
The bill is, of course, not about performance. It’s about power. It allows the Treasury to arbitrarily set the pay of all employees; or all employees at companies receiving federal money, which is pretty much the same thing, or will be soon.
There are no guidelines in the bill defining reasonable pay, just authority and full discretion given to the Administration to bypass the market and set pay by non-appealable fiat.
During the interview, Cavuto created …