Bankers party hearty - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

cmac2012 · #1 02-27-2009, 04:22 PM

I'm all like WOO-HOO! Captains of industry, rise up!

I Ponied Up for Sheryl Crow?
By MAUREEN DOWD

Talk about being teed off.

The economy is croaking and bankers are still partying at a golf tournament here on our dime.

It’s a good argument for nationalization, or better yet, internationalization. Outsource the jobs of these perfidious, oblivious bank executives to Bangalore; Bollywood bashes have to cost less than Hollywood ones.

The entertainment Web site TMZ broke the story Tuesday that Northern Trust of Chicago, which got $1.5 billion in bailout money and then laid off 450 workers, flew hundreds of clients and employees to Los Angeles last week and treated them to four days of posh hotel rooms, salmon and filet mignon dinners, music concerts, a PGA golf tournament at the Riviera Country Club with Mercedes shuttle rides and Tiffany swag bags.

“A rep from the PGA told us Northern Trust wrote one big, fat check in order to sponsor the event,” TMZ reported.

Northern No Trust had a lavish dinner at the Ritz Carlton on Wednesday with a concert by Chicago (at a $100,000 fee); rented a private hangar at the Santa Monica Airport on Thursday for another big dinner with a gig by Earth, Wind & Fire, and closed down the House of Blues on Sunset Strip on Saturday (at a cost of $50,000) for a dinner and serenade by Sheryl Crow.

In the ignoble tradition of rockers who sing for huge sums to sketchy people when we’re not looking, Crow — in her stint as a federal employee — warbled these lyrics to the oblivious revelers:

“Slow down, you’re gonna crash,
Baby, you’re a-screaming it’s a blast, blast, blast
Look out babe, you’ve got your blinders on ...
But there’s a new cat in town
He’s got high payin’ friends
Thinks he’s gonna change history.”

Northern Untrustworthy even offered junketeers the chance to attend a seminar on the credit crunch where they could no doubt learn that the U.S. government is just the latest way to finance your deals and keep your office swathed in $87,000 area rugs.

In what is now an established idiotic ritual of rationalization, the bank put out a letter noting that it “did not seek the government’s investment” even though it took it, and that it had raised $3 million for the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce Charity Foundation and other nonprofits. They riposted that they have a contract to do it every year for five years; but this isn’t every year.

The bank cloaks itself in a philanthropic glow while wasting our money, acting like the American Cancer Society when in fact it’s a cancer on American society.

It asserted that it earned an operating net income of $641 million last year and acted as though it did Americans a favor by taking federal cash.

I would ask Northern No Trust: If you’re totally solvent, why are you taking my tax dollars? If you’re not totally solvent, why are you giving my tax dollars to Sheryl Crow?

Coming in a moment when skeptical and angry Americans watched A.I.G., Citigroup, General Motors and Chrysler — firms that had already been given a federal steroid injection — get back in line for more billions, the golf scandal was just one more sign that the bailed-out rich are different from you and me: their appetites are unquenchable and their culture is uneducable.

President Obama served them notice on Tuesday night in his Congressional address, saying: “This time, C.E.O.’s won’t be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks or buy fancy drapes or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over.”

But will they notice?

John “Antique Commode” Thain had to be ordered by a judge to tell Andrew Cuomo’s investigators which Merrill Lynch employees got those $3.6 billion in bonuses that Thain illicitly shoved through as his firm was failing and being taken over by Bank of America with the help of a $45 billion bailout. Kenneth Lewis, the Bank of America C.E.O., made the absurd assertion to Congress that his bank had “no authority” to stop the bonuses, even though he knew about them beforehand.

“They find out they’re $7 billion off on the estimate of losses for the fourth quarter and they never think maybe we should go back and adjust these bonuses?” Cuomo told me, as Thain was finally responding to investigators on Tuesday at the New York attorney general’s office. “He refused to answer questions on the basis that ‘the Bank of America didn’t want me to.’ You can take the Fifth Amendment or you can answer questions. But there’s no Bank of America privilege. The Bank of America doesn’t substitute for the Constitution. And who’s the Bank of America, by the way?”

He gets incensed about how ingrained, indoctrinated and insensitive the ex-masters of the universe are. “They think of themselves as kings and queens,” he said. And they’re not ready to abdicate.

Carleton Hughes · #2 02-27-2009, 05:02 PM

Line 'em all up for a 9mm hemorrhage I say,slaughter the lot and let's start fresh.

cmac2012 · #3 02-27-2009, 05:44 PM

That might work, though I like a friend's suggestion, that they be gainfully employed picking tomatoes, cucumbers, and the like. Just basic stoop labor. It would be heart-warming to see them uplift themselves by making a contribution to the world.

A264172 · #4 02-27-2009, 05:53 PM

Bank tells staff: no more sex on expenses
By Allan Hall in Berlin
Wednesday, 23 April 2008

"Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest, has been hit by the global credit crunch so badly that it has issued a memorandum to senior executives telling them that brothel visits and adult channels in hotel rooms cannot be claimed on expenses.

UK employees of the bank, which has 78,000 workers worldwide, will also receive the no-naughtiness-on-the-firm's-plastic missive.

"Deutsche Bank does not approve of any adult entertainments, and such expenditures will not be reimbursed," said a memo that was leaked to the news magazine Spiegel.

It says the directive was aimed at 800 workers in the bank's communications and social responsibility department, but variations have been sent to all workers. The memo further warns that the bank's credit cards must not be used for such purposes.

Whether the edict was prompted by a recent upsurge in executives seeking relief from Deutsche Bank's sub-prime horrors – more than £2bn in writedowns so far – via Germany's vast network of pleasure houses is unclear...."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/bank-tells-staff-no-more-sex-on-expenses-814063.html

cmac2012 · #5 02-27-2009, 05:54 PM

Good Lord! Will these cost cutters stop at nothing?!

Carleton Hughes · #6 02-27-2009, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A264172

Bank tells staff: no more sex on expenses
By Allan Hall in Berlin
Wednesday, 23 April 2008

"Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest, has been hit by the global credit crunch so badly that it has issued a memorandum to senior executives telling them that brothel visits and adult channels in hotel rooms cannot be claimed on expenses.

UK employees of the bank, which has 78,000 workers worldwide, will also receive the no-naughtiness-on-the-firm's-plastic missive.

"Deutsche Bank does not approve of any adult entertainments, and such expenditures will not be reimbursed," said a memo that was leaked to the news magazine Spiegel.

It says the directive was aimed at 800 workers in the bank's communications and social responsibility department, but variations have been sent to all workers. The memo further warns that the bank's credit cards must not be used for such purposes.

Whether the edict was prompted by a recent upsurge in executives seeking relief from Deutsche Bank's sub-prime horrors – more than £2bn in writedowns so far – via Germany's vast network of pleasure houses is unclear...."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/bank-tells-staff-no-more-sex-on-expenses-814063.html

Oh well,back to the hand lotion.

http://www.lederwerkstatt.com/penispumpen.htm

cmac2012 · #7 02-27-2009, 06:49 PM

Hookers are like eating cotton candy when what you really needed was a good meal.

Not that I know from experience, mind you.

A264172 · #8 02-27-2009, 07:29 PM

Funny, hand lotion and cotton candy were the two modes on Deutsche Bank's anal... er ah ...annual expenses report.

cmac2012 · #9 02-28-2009, 01:50 AM

Whew, that's a strange combination.

Botnst · #10 02-28-2009, 11:44 AM

As if we needed one, yet another example of why we should not tie my tax dollars and debt to private industry.

aklim · #11 02-28-2009, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Botnst

As if we needed one, yet another example of why we should not tie my tax dollars and debt to private industry.

That's fine for your business. My business wants a bailout. The economy sucks, people are not spending, yada, yada, yada. Please send any and all donations to the AKLIM Foundation.

Botnst · #12 02-28-2009, 01:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aklim

That's fine for your business. My business wants a bailout. The economy sucks, people are not spending, yada, yada, yada. Please send any and all donations to the AKLIM Foundation.

It would help if you had a certified 3rd world bank. Try Nigeria.

LUVMBDiesels · #13 02-28-2009, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmac2012

That might work, though I like a friend's suggestion, that they be gainfully employed picking tomatoes, cucumbers, and the like. Just basic stoop labor. It would be heart-warming to see them uplift themselves by making a contribution to the world.

Welcome to the Cultural Revolution... Get out your Little Red Book and start quoting Mao!

Actually I can see where NT would still put on these shindigs. The people they are bringing to these events are the wealthiest customers they have and really rich potential customers. These people expect to be wined and dined and to have somebody like Sheryl Crow entertain them. While we think this is over the top these people expect it. Since NT lives and dies by these private wealth management accounts, not fulfilling their expectations could send them to another bank.

I am not making excuses for them, I can just see where they are coming from...