Bonus reductions

Projected bonus cuts on Wall Street here. About time those millions were cut (in my view) and redistributed. Of course, some of this might be companies posturing to the market in the hope of driving up stock prices. The same strategy employed when companies announce layoffs... Has anyone gone back a year later to some of these companies that garner headlines when they project layoffs and asked them exactly how much they laid off or exactly how much they cut bonuses? No. I am sure not. Yes, posturing for the markets is an important aspect of this exercise...

Maybe, we need some spreading of the wealth...

I was out of the news cycle yesterday, but reading the Times this morning, I found some truth and candor from Sen. McCain - a rapidly dwindling commodity... Apparently Sen. McCain has publicly stated that he and President Bush do share a 'common philosophy'.

This is what Sen. Obama had to say and I think he is spot on:

It's a philosophy that says we should give more and more to folks at the top, to millionaires and billionaires, to the wealthiest among us, and that somehow it's all going to trickle down on the rest of us.

It's a philosophy that justifies spending $10 billion a month in Iraq while the Iraqi government sits on a huge surplus and our economy is in crisis.

Of course, McCain is also the individual who defined "middle class" as making as much as $5,000,000 per year. Yes, that is five million dollars. This sure is an interesting but useless philosophy as far as the common man/woman is concerned.

What is wrong with spreading some of that wealth around - pdf report highlighting income disparities? If one looks to the chart below (from the report), it is clear that the only thing that has remained stagnant was the ‘average wage incomes’. The disparity is so extreme that the axes scales have to be logarithmic such that the report could compare on the same page the disparities between CEO pay and the meager handouts that common working men/women take home. And, they have the audacity to say spreading the wealth around is a bad thing...

Compensation alert - yet again

Peter Kraus, the head of strategy at Merrill Lynch is leaving the company and in the process will net $25 million in compensation. This resulted due to the takeover of Merrill by Bank of America.

Here is the stunner:
Peter Kraus joined Merrill in September. A month back!

And the McCain camp has issues with redistributing wealth.

Plumbing the depths using Joe the Plumber

Yesterday, Sen. McCain mentioned ‘Joe the Plumber’ 21 times at the debates. Apparently, Joe is some rich plumber in Ohio who happened to tell Obama that his plumbing business is set to make more than $250,000 a year and Obama’s tax policies might hit the business hard.

Big deal! Maybe Joe Plumber needs to get a couple of facts straight.

Only 2% of all households in these United States make more than $250,000 a year. That leaves 98% of all households below the $250,000 limit. The median income of all households in the United States is about $50,000. The tax policy proposed by Obama will only hit people making more than five times the median income = 2% of the population!

So, yesterday it was clear that Sen. McCain was speaking to the richest 2% of the people in the United States.

My response is this: If Joe the Plumber was asked to pay a little more taxes, suck it up and pay. You owe it to the people. The BS about trickle down or free market or laissez faire have not worked. A quick look at executive compensation and income disparities in the United States will tell you that. We need sensible policies that will give the 98% a chance.

Well, the machinations of the Jonah McPalin campaign have produced a motley cast of characters. Last week Gov. Palin gave us Joe Six-pack, this week Sen. McCain introduced us to Joe Plumber. Who know, next week we might need to get ready for Joe the Lyncher.


This ad from the Obama campaign tells us of the percentage of times McCain voted with Bush. In McCain's own words!!