03.26.08
Bear Stearns fiasco teaches us once again poor people and employees need to learn how to play bridge
Do you smell that? It’s the wacky business world’s way letting us know its spring. Another day another business executive walks away with a cool 232 million while his employees work on their fancy “will break dance for food” cardboard signs under the overpass. It happens so often that I think people have become immune to the harsh realities, but the disparity of rich and poor rears its ugly head once more. Show of hands who all remembers Enron, MCI, and Tyco just to name a few?
Today I read in the newspaper that James Cayne CEO of Bear Stearns has hired personal security to escort him around his former office. Apparently employees were furious that Mr Cayne was going to bridge tournaments during the week the firm was crumbling. While I don’t advocate the use of violence, I’m actually kind of shocked that more CEOs who run their respective businesses into the ground don’t require the services of special kung fu ninja type body guards. I’m just saying… Anyways I don’t want to turn all “leftist” socialist on you while you read this perfectly good conservative blog, but it struck me while we throw the book at drug dealers and general miscreants, who is a larger threat to society? The guy with a bag of weed, or the guy who steals corporate funds while he devastatingly wipes out pensions, careers, lives, families, and communities (my apologies to female drug dealers and corporate thieves). Just because you went to college or play bridge with “important” people that doesn’t negate your contribution to destroying society.
I generally believe in the idea of the free market and all that nonsense I learned in economics, but these lovely ideas only seem to work on paper. The real monkey wrench that smashes these theories always seems to be corporate greed. As much as I hate government interference in industry and life in general, I do believe that some oversight is needed at the (bare minimum) to protect pensions. Maybe some oversight is needed to hold board members accountable for their actions. We have seen this time and again were somebody in a suit makes a bone headed move, the whole board rubber stamps it, it fails DOA, and to cover it up before they go on vacation they fire 1/3 of their staff. Maybe I’m naive but somehow that just seems wrong to me. OR, (and I’m just talking off the top of my head here) how about you keep the parachute bonus of 200 million and divide it between the workers and royally kick the CEO, President, and board members in the ass before you fire and shame them then take their salary and/or maybe even send them to jail. Too rough? Sounds just about right to me. Lets be serious if you screw up the count at McDonalds, Ronald isn’t as forgiving.
I remember watching CNBC last year when the Fed infused Wallstreet with liquidity *cough* I mean bailed them out *cough* after weeks of rich millionaires on TV crying about they need help. Then I watched in horror as these same hypocrites felt that people hurt by the subprime crisis didn’t deserve any help, and that my friends pretty much sums this whole thing up in a tight little package. Which brings us to today, the Feds once again stepped in and saved the day guaranteeing Bear Stearns for 30 billion dollars (so they could be bought out by J.P. Morgan at 2 dollars a share instead of 160 a week ago), all the while there are poor people still living in FEMA trailers in New Orleans. Sorry to be a downer but it’s true, and while the rush to save one, and the hesitation to save another in the same breath is shocking, it is to be expected because everybody knows poor people don’t know how to play bridge.
03.24.08
News you can’t use, what happened to the Mainstream media
I guess the best thing to do is ask the question… what happened to journalist? Deep inside this paradox lies the trillion dollar Iraq war, Lacy Peterson question. What happened to journalistic integrity? And i guess a even bigger question is when did these institutions of “facts” become institutions of “opinion”? I guess what I am asking is, when did we replace these guys
With these guys?
I, like a small minority of free thinkers (I guess you can call it that) have long since unplugged from the matrix if you will. No not because of some vast grand conspiracy, no not at all, I got out while the getting was good, because I simply couldn’t take it anymore. It’s hard to notice the drivel passed around as news until you take a step back and watch all the news channels at once. The current state of the mainstream media could be equated down to a group of people in a crowded room yelling FIRE!!! After the panic these same people walk around and interview people about how they feel about being scared and/or confused.
My favourite thing about the news is how news anchors and reporters protray themselves as being shocked at the reactions of people they have spent a whole week stirring up. Actually I have another analogy try this on for size, today’s mainstream media is like a child with a large magnifying glass focusing the suns ray onto an ant hill. If done effectively it could provide light to the busy ants working below but instead it is used to burn a few ants in hopes of starting a frenzy. Too harsh you say… possibly, or maybe it’s not harsh enough. I think the most discouraging thing about watching 24 hour news media outlets is the narrative. It is hard to grasp at first, but when you flip through all the news shows at the same time, you begin to see news isn’t simply reported as just the facts, news has become mere sound bites and ideas tossed through your TV screen. The “narrative leads” is another way of looking at it. As you change channels it is fairly easy to see the catch phrase of the day. How is it that four 24 hour news channels with its hundreds of reporters, news anchors, and editors all decided on one phrase for the whole day. The odds of that are astounding… or not, the cynic in me thinks that somebody is copying off of somebody else’s work. And as such, are no longer “reporting” but “repeating”. Whatever happened to the crack team of investigators, whatever happened having different ideas, and interpretations of events?
Never has it become more obvious then this last week’s shit storm called the “Rev Wright controversy”. While I don’t agree with some of his views it took me 2 minutes of top notch investigating to discover that his most controversial of statements weren’t actually his words, but a quotation from a US ambassador. It was like celestial choirs were singing and the sky opened up and I believe my quote at the time was “wtf”. The sad realization sank in, news isn’t reported it is created. I refuse to believe that there is a team of monkeys wearing hats with the words press on it doing research for all 500 newspapers, magazines, and television shows. Somebody somewhere must have been said to someone hey buddy go research Obama’s crazy pastor, and this smart investigative fellow/lady must have, after doing the long strenuous 2 minutes of leg work I did, discovered this gaffe and told their supervising editors. Surely somewhere between all these thousands of people thrust with the most important task of reporting the news would have a said maybe we should provide some context or maybe even investigate the other candidates? No? Yeah I know but then THAT would have been news.
After the slight air of frustration had subsided I thought about doing a special comment like Keith Olbermann one of the few people in the media who is even bothering to do any research (or their job). I was and still am stuck by an article written by one of the creators of the TV show The Wire. He spoke about the newspaper in the show and one of the most shocking things about its portrayal. He goes on to say that the newspaper had missed or overlooked every important story of the day. My biggest fear isn’t so much that today’s media has missed, or done a poor job reporting every important news story of the day, no my biggest fear is that it was done on purpose for ratings.
