Yearly Archives: 2008

WAMU: Never Mind the Losses Give’m Their Bonus

This entry was posted in Economics on by

We sure wouldn’t want 3000 Washington Mutual execs to feel short-changed for screwing up:

WaMu has revised its bonus plan for nearly 3,000 top executives so continuing damage from the subprime lending collapse won’t crimp their annual awards.
The struggling Seattle-based lender said in a regulatory filing Monday it will exclude the cost of soured real-estate loans and foreclosure expenses when it calculates net operating profit, the biggest component of executives’ 2008 bonuses.

Not only will they be excluding those real expenses but they want to make up for the losses on the back of their retail banking customers by including this new criteria in the bonus calculation:

Fees from retail banking — a new factor, weighted at 25 percent. Many banks including WaMu have been increasing fees for services such as ATM withdrawals by non-customers to compensate for losses in other areas.

These fees also include over-draft charges that hammer those account holders with the fewest resources.

Lunch Time Diversions

This entry was posted in Humor on by

As it is still lunch time or will be in the Pacific Time Zone and points west divert yourself over to PZ’s place for a couple of short videos to go with your food.

Of course, the videos will be equally entertaining at other times of the day.

Caucus Farcus

This entry was posted in Democrats Election 2008 on by

It looks like some of the Texas democratic caucuses were even more of a mess than the ones we had here in Washington:

This was essentially a cattle call – people were herded in to sign their name, list their preference, and then most left. It was not like the Iowa caucuses at all – and we are all at the mercy of the eventual signature counters.

A Publius says:

It’s quite possibly the worst delegate-selection system ever.

Surely the democratic party can come up with a democratic system of delegate selection like, well, maybe elections in which everyone can participate. Oh, and in which everyone’s vote carries the same weight.

Telecom Immunity

This entry was posted in bush War on Terrorism on by

It is likely that congress is going to roll over for the bushies once again and grant immunity to some telecom companies who broke the law.
As noted at The Left Coaster the issue from the administration perspective is not about the dollar penalties that might be assessed. It is about covering the administration’s ass.
So why are the dems licking it?
The only reason that I can think of is that the congress critters and their presidential candidates think that violating the 4th amendment might be a good tool for them to have in their kit as well.

It is not as if the democratic party has ever been all about respect for individuals and their rights both real and as expressed in the constitution. Quite the contrary.

The Straight Shot Express Flip-Flops

This entry was posted in mccain on by

john, prove it isn’t so!
Steve Benen reports that there are “some inconsistencies” in mcain’s record:

And if we’re playing by Republican rules, McCain’s “inconsistencies” should be a fairly serious problem.
With this in mind, for the first time in months, I thought now would be a good time to update the list of John McCain’s Biggest Flip-Flops. There have been some key additions since the last time I did this (in November).

Uhhh, more than a few. Consider your top 2-3 issues and then go look at the lists of flip-flops.
You may agree with his most recent position but can you trust him to hold that position a year from now?

Via Kevin Drum.