Mad Dogs and Englishmen

So we were sitting there at dinner when on comes a revolution. The young Englishmen were in the streets in London getting bashed by the Bobbies. Blood streaming down foreheads and shouting young men being pulled back into the crowd put me back to when I was kid watching the college demonstrations for that Indochina war that never quite worked out. The footage stopped dinner and everyone stared in silence while the British Police in riot gear tried to get the young Englishmen to behave like well young Englishmen. But they wanted to behave like the Young Americans from forty years before.

Remember that Bowie song. Young Americans....young Americans.. It was an anthem to the students taking to the streets and screaming Hell NO WE WONT GO. Bowie was tipping his hat, saying at least the Young Americans are doing something. Seems the Young Englishmen have had enough and don't like the fact the Banks and Big Business are getting bailed out and lavishing employees with million dollar bonuses while they lose their jobs and their homes. Those touchy Young Englishmen. Don't they know that demonstrating is passe in the twenty first century. They should take some lessons from their cousins across the Big Pond and just chill and send a an email.


We used to carry that mantle of outrage, but we have become so wired or placid or bored or turned off or just don't give a damn that the best we can do is blog or email or that moment of organized outrage..the Webcast! But those Englishmen seem to have had enough and have taken their rage to the streets. It was eerie seeing all those people in the streets with the billy clubs swinging and the riot geared police trying to take the streets. It did look like anarchy. It did look like populist rage. But this was England! Weren't we the ones who had the tea party and said no taxation without representation? Weren't we the ones who made the world safe for democracy? Weren't we the ones who tell the world where to get off with our flaming youthful indignation against the old order? Seems like everything else, even our fiery disrespect for the powers that be has been usurped by someone else.


David Bowie is going to have to pen another song if we don't wake up soon. But this time he won't have to look across the ocean. This time he can just turn on the telly and watch those Mad dogs and Englishmen raise hell.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

The Pragmatist

So he fired the CEO of GM. Don't look for him to cry over that one. Obama grew up the same time I did--in the heat of the sixties. We grade schoolers had only one question--what was everyone so upset about? We thought all that demonstrating and carrying on was ridiculous. For my part I wore a Nixon T shirt. You couldn't get more practical than that and I came from a family of privilege in Virginia. Imagine the pragmatist in a black man who bulls his way into Harvard then to the top of the law review.

Smart. You bet. You got to be smart to overcome those odds. You can't look to the main for anything. So don't look for him to cry over the Unions when he busts them in bankruptcy because GM is going bankrupt. Shareholders and workers be dammed there is a new sheriff in town and he will bring the new economy with him. What do you want him to do? Give the fat white guys another chance? They had many and blew it and one thing a pragmatist knows is no one really changes and no one gives up power. You really think GM is going to come up with great fuel efficient cars on their own? I don't think so. Why pay for the milk when you can get it for free? And they have been getting the milk for free for so long we are talking generations who were on the tit.

Political Pundits call it suicide. Hang the unions around the Democrats neck. The party that busted up GM. So what. Somebody has to do it. GM couldn't make the changes without concessions and the pragmatist knows nobody gives up power and money unless they have to. And the Unions will have to in a bankruptcy. So its bye bye Obama according to the talking heads. Maybe so. But if you are a black man running the free world you can't bet on the status quo. The only chance you have is to actually do the right thing. You have to bring in the new economy because it is the only chance you really have. In case you haven't heard, the old economy is DOA. Aint no one buying overpriced cars that eat gas anymore. So really, what's a smart man to do?

You get rid of the old wood. Start with the car companies and work your way down. Auto workers will be upset. Welcome to the displacement party. We have all been displaced. Publishing, real estate, brokering, banking...we are just warming up. If you think you are slipping through this transition doing business as usual then guess again. That would presuppose there is still some gas in the old economy tank and there really isn't. Even the quick fill ups by the government don't last because that world is gone. There are no buyers. So even if Obama was a different man and went along with all the goofy old white guys and gave GM ten more restructuring band aid the result would be the same. A desert of economic demand. There is none. Not for the old models anyway.

So here we are. Canned the CEO of GM and he is just warming up. Listen up bankers. You are next. Welcome to the new economy. Dreamers need not apply.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com

The Bleeding Dog and the Masters of the Universe

Enough populist rage. Let's cut to the chase here. Middle class people are practical and sensible so lets look at it that way. If you have a bleeding dog and take him to the vet and he says well I can help him but it will cost you a ten thousand bucks and I don't know if he will live or not anyway, but you don't have a choice, you must save him. You then look over at the dog pound and think, but if I get a new dog then that will only cost me five hundred. You look back at your bleeding dog. He has had a long life and it is his time. You must do this, the vet says, or the dog will die! You look at the dogs in the pound. They are eager, frisky and just want a place to run. So you have a choice. Shovel money after your old dog or let a new dog have his day. But you do what the vet tells you and pay the ten thousand.

Or let's look at it from a mechanical standpoint. You have a steam engine. It runs on coal. It doesn't work. You take it to the shop and the man says well you need a new cylinder, run you about ten thousand. That's funny you say, I just put a new cylinder in there. The man says, nope you need another one. So you do it and you take it home and it still doesn't run. You look in the firebox and see there is no coal there. You could have saved your self five grand by just buying a five hundred dollars worth of coal, but the mechanic kept telling you it is the engine.

The Masters of the Universe still are telling us what dog to save and how to fix our engine. The common element to both of these scenarios is they get the money. They are the vet and they are the mechanic. Capitalism is all about selling. Everyone is selling. The Masters of the Universe are selling too. They are selling their positions, their jobs, their way of life. They are saying who we have to save and how much and unfortunately no one is really questioning them. If you buy into the Banking System Must Be Saved, then you are doomed to failure. This implies an all or none scenario. This implies all banks will fail if we don't buy their bad debt for trillions of dollars. The dog will die and the engine won't run.

Alright, lets break it down to this. If you give a family a ten thousand dollar check. They will spend it. If you give them a twenty thousand dollar check. Then they will spend it. If you give them a thirty thousand dollar check, they will spend it. Here is a diagram:


Please read from bottom to top.


UP!
GOES
MONEY


Now read from top to bottom


MONEY
DOESN'T
GO
DOWN!


So if we give money to the butcher, the teacher, the secretary, the salesman, the accountant, the mechanic, the doctor, the conductor, the writer (had to get that in) then they will spend it and money will go UP! But if we continue to donate money for the bleeding dogs, because the Masters of the Universe tell us to, then we will just lose the money. The dog is bleeding and no one can stop it. Sometimes, you just have to get a new dog.

They Were Expendable

As a stockholder of AIG I demand the money back from the twenty five people who threw AIG under the bus and then the company. CEO Liddy says these people were so important they gave them millions of dollars in retention bonuses after they left. THEY JUST DON'T GET IT. There are millions of people unemployed. As a stockholder I demand they go out and find people to replace the bozos who lost a billion dollars. Oh, they already left. Oh, they already got their money. As a stockholder I demand to know the names of the twenty five people who trashed the company and the economy. CEO Liddy says he cannot give those names for the harm that might befall them. You know what.. HES RIGHT. Simple solution. Give us back our money and no harm will come to these people. As a stockholder I demand an immediate cessation of all bonuses. Oh, well, we cant do that because there are millions more already promised in the insurance side of the business in RETENTION BONUS. So the irreplaceable insurance adjuster stands to get a million bucks just to stay in his job. Again, as a stockholder I demand management go out to the MILLIONS of people looking for work and find replacements for these people too. CEO Liddy says these people are the best and the brightest. Then lets go find the Worst and the Dumbest. In fact, as a stockholder, I demand we find the biggest morons to work at AIG and pay them no retention bonus. I'm sure they will be fine with that.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

The Three Percent

What is really behind the AIG bonus rage is the suspicion that there is a group of people in this country who are laughing their way to the bank. It is that old idiom that ninety seven percent of the money is given to three percent of the people and the remaining ninety seven percent must split the remaining three percent. AIG bears this out. But what is really behind our collective outrage is that this group of people who seem to have it all don't work for their money. They don't. Ivy League schools dump out business graduates and they are snapped up by companies like AIG who put them in positions that require six figure retention bonuses. Normal people do not get hundreds of thousands of dollars for staying on the job. But once you are the three percent then the Christmas baubles rein down. You not only get the bonuses but outrageous salaries and stock options that set up people for life. For Life. The deck is surely stacked. Imagine what has gone on under the wire. We are getting a fraction of what really goes on in the land of three percent. Millions of dollars are paid out that we will never know about. And these people are not putting in brutal hours, making life and death decisions. These are derivative traders, glorified mortgage brokers who just have a much much more lucrative yield spread. Instead of making a few thousand on a loan they make a few million. America was founded on the precept that yes anyone can become anything but we also demand a level playing field. That was what the Revolution was all about. We should not be put in a position where others can take advantage of of us. So we have a representative form of government that says we all have the same rights under the law and the same opportunities. But it would seem that the three percent have an unfair advantage over the rest of us. The three percent get their money regardless. Why? Because they are entitled and entitlement goes beyond a bankrupt company or an economy teetering on a depression. Americans hate the thought that one group of people are somehow more deserving because of the accident of birth or an Ivy league school. Sure, give them their money, but lets see them earn it. That's what the rest of us have to do. We have to work and earn our money. Maybe the three percent should earn theirs now, because I don't think America can afford to have a slacker class anymore.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com

You've Got To Be Kidding

Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, start a revolution. You have got to be kidding. AIG now is taking the money the government gave them and paying out MILLIONS of dollars in bonuses. Listen up all my friends who work for a living...they are taking your dollars (we now own eighty percent) and paying out not thousands, not hundreds but MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to individuals. Some people are receiving a million dollars and more in one check! You are going to love the rationalization--it would be illegal not to pay them. Oh OK. WHAT!!!!!!!!!! You mean the company that bought tons of bad derivatives, the very people the financial arm of AIG the very people that bought this stuff...THEY ARE THE ONES GETTING THE MONEY! It would be like driving a bus off a cliff and then getting paid a million dollars for doing it. The treasury department raised a stink but determined the bonuses are LEGAL. WHAT???????????? So, a company that would not be in existence except for tax payer money (EIGHTY PERCENT) is saying that legally they have to pay the people who bankrupted the company. COME ON. Tell me they would pay them if they went bankrupt. This is straight highway robbery. You have to love the CEO justification. They can't attract quality people unless they pay them well. WHAT! Quality people! A bag lady who did nothing but sit at a desk could have done a better job than these guys--she at least wouldn't have thrown the money away on worthless mortgage back securites! These are the people who threw the company under the bus and now us. GIVE ME A BREAK. I mean if you are going to rob a bank and steal money at least use a gun and call it what it is. But to say it is legal is an insult to every person with an eight grade education. Even a kid knows when they are being gypped. And we are being gypped in the worst way. And here is the real shot between the eyes. They don't want to tell anyone what they are doing with the billions they are paying out. That money is going to Bank of America and others through back door insurance policies. So we are giving the money to more people who are paying other people bonuses and giving them trips.
The United States=Plutocracy. Rule by the wealthy. Plutocrats. A-I-G.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com

A GD Insurance Salesman

The sky is falling. AIG COULD TANK! The government is tossing in another thirty billion but the chairman says that is a pittance. He reckons (folksy) that it would probably take about 300 billion to keep them afloat. Just a mere three hundred billion and even then he doesn't know if that is enough. So right now every man woman and child is on the hook for fourteen hundred bucks on the AIG Bailout. In other words we own AIG. My mother in law reeled in horror when I said I was going to earn some extra money by selling insurance: "A Goddamn insurance salesman," she fumed. Well that says it all doesn't it. You know those guys who bet against you. When you die they might pay off. When you get sick they don't pay off. When you get a ticket your rates go up. When you go to the doctor your rates go up or if something is wrong or they drop you. Or your kid goes to the doctor and they claim a preexisting condition from five years before and so we aren't going to pay for the treatment thank you very much. They are the same guys that debit your account every month for insurance that does NOTHING. If your house burns down, if your car crashes, if you get sick, if you die, if someone sues you, if lightning strikes...if, if, if, if, if...then they may or may not payoff. And if there is a loophole they will find it. I'm sorry that insurance only covered you if you the car hit you but you caused the accident. SORRY. Oh and by the way, we dropped you. Oh, you didn't go to traffic school and now you have a ticket. SORRY. We just doubled your rates and it doesn't matter that you had a perfect driving record--We need more money to insure your sorry ass OR ELSE! Else? That's right pal, you will be UNINSURED. Oh, you mean like the millions of people who can't get health insurance. Oh right. THOSE PEOPLE. By all means insure me, let's see, I'll take an umbrella policy, a life insurance policy, a health policy, a homeowners policy, a car insurance policy, and throw in a renter policy just to be on the safe side. THANK GOD I AM INSURED! Oh, by the way, you know all that money you have been giving us for twenty years--WE LOST IT! Whoops. Threw it away on derivatives. And here's the kicker. The CEO of forty years is now suing us! The nerve of this guy. He says we didn't tell him we were broke when he cashed out and became our biggest shareholder. Hey, you FD up pal...you TRUSTED US. Sucker. They say one is born every minute. But ..listen....ha ha...we need three hundred billion just to stay afloat because if you let us go baby then we all go! KABOOM. Game over! So don't even think about the way we have ripped you off for years because if we go then the economy is TOAST. So...now you are all stockholders. That's right. We are all in this boat together and we sink or swim. So there you have it, now whose the Goddamn insurance salesman? Huh?

Earth Wind and Fire

I dig Earth Wind and Fire. I dig disco. I discoed. Good times. Party on dude. Cheryl Crow not so much. Something about that California singing about the mellow party times...been there done that. I am not a golfer. Nope. Chasing the white ball with little carts forget about it. Besides a woman who used to live across the street from me died when her cart veered into a retention pond and she drowned. Ignominious. So I steer clear. It seems so...I don't know so mainstream. Golf, Sheryl Crow, Earth Wind and Fire, Pinacolodas, the nice Pacific breeze blowing in from the ocean. Shrimp anyone? I'll take two please and another drink for my friend there and how about a bottle of champagne? I wonder what all the poor people are doing? What is all the rancor about anyway? We are doing just fine thank you. We made money last year and then the government just kicked us a cool billion. A round for the house! Hey, you know what, screw it, have Earth Wind and Fire play all night, and Wan...money is no object. Oh, and if you have one of those fine Cuban cigars. So where was I...right...all this talk of nationalization. Rubbish. Look around you. What do you see? Prosperous people. People with tans and margarita smiles. C'mon, the losers are broke now...the suckers George. Take you and me. We saw the train coming and played it cool. Now we are a billion to the good and we are sitting our ass down here by seashore. Right...oh sure, lobster? Fine, bring us four. So...you know it's survival of the fittest baby. Darwinism. Let the bad banks go man. Let the auto companies go. It's the way capitalism works. All that stuff about goverment for the people and by the people...please. There will always be poor people and there will always be the middle class who will never get a clue. Ha! That's a drink. What did F. Scott Fitzgerald say? The rich are very different from you and me...you bet your ass we are! Oh...Hemingway said that...well, someone said it and it doesn't' really matter because you are either in or you are out and you know who you are. Ah yes...life doesn't' get much better than this...really it doesn't. What did you say your name was...George...you know you look familiar...were you ever in government?

Those Poor Poor Bankers

Oh the shame. The shame. The Masters of the Universe have had their income tied down...Oh, No! A paltry five hundred thousand dollars. CAPPED! Why these men have suffered, they have single handedly destroyed the economy and this is how we show our gratitude by capping their income to the penurious amount of five hundred grand. No more junkets, jets, mansions, caviar, gold, silver, chateaus, beach houses, Rolls....Just a measly cup of coffee in a Starbucks lamenting the gold old days of making millions, millions by God and this is how they show their gratitude? I tell you what I would do. Let them keep their bailout money. We don't let anybody restrict our income. Five hundred thousand. Are you kidding? You couldn't buy a hot dog with that and they expect us to do our job on that? Nope. That's it. We won't take it. Keep your money and your five hundred grand...we'll do it the old fashioned way...what was that guys said from Merrill Lynch...oh yeah, we'll EARN IT. It's like they want us to be middle class or something. Why what's the average middle class family make now forty? Forty five? Who are you kidding? If I want to buy a jet then I'll buy one! If I want to go to Las Vegas and spend millions on a junket then I'm going! You don't tell me what to do. Five hundred thousand. I spit on that. Chump change for chumps. Wait until they see what happens when you tell bankers how much they can make. Banks will start to go out of business, buy worthless derivatives, mortgage backs, make bad loans...wait until that all starts, then whose going to be sorry? Hah?

What's Good For the Goose

Alright, so the banks get a get out of jail free card. And the automakers. And the airlines. And Amtrack. And the retailers (in the works). And whoever else in Corporate America who can find a friend in Washington. So how about the middle class? Radical. You cannot give money to the people...they might riot, tear the clothes off, not spend it...right. Sure, fine, ok, so you don't want to give money to the people. So lets not give money to the people...let's give them amnesty instead. Here's the deal. All the people slipping into foreclosure (up 81percent last month over a million a month) and declaring bankruptcy and not able to pay their bills, medical bills, credit card bills...they will all be knocked out of our economy. Why? Because their credit will be in tatters. FICO scores rule the day and if you declare bankruptcy or are late on a couple of credit card payments, can't pay your mortgage, your phone, electric, gas, then...(unlike the banks and the automakers and everyone else in greed land) you get a ding on on your credit. So, what happens? You get no credit. That's right. Out of the game. Millions and millions of people will not be able to buy a hut in the swamplands of Florida much less a house. They won't be able to buy a washing machine, fridge, car (durable goods you've heard of them) and so guess what, the very people you want to get back in there and start buying won't be able too. We could take the attitude of that is their fault. Fine. Then tell the banks and automakers and retailers and anyone else getting bailout dollars it's their fault too. What's good for the goose... is good for the gander.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com

The Japanese Woman

"Oh you bought few items and still cost eighty dollars."

"That's Target," I murmured, watching her scan my few items.

"Very cold outside tonight...hope your car start."

I smiled. "I do too."

"American cars no good."

"Well they aren't worth much now."

The Japanese woman squinted.

"Japanese make cars differently."

"You mean better?'

"No...no...something else different...American car companies have something different."

"Lack of Research and Development?"

"No...no....something else...I can't think of word."

"Greed."

"No..."

"Myopic."

She stopped scanning my items.

"No...Japanese car companies no have this...this makes American car companies broke."

"Gas guzzlers?"

"No."

"They no fly jet when asking for money."

"Stupidity."

"No...I cant' think of the word.

She frowned at the computer and handed me my receipt.

"Something else...make all American car companies broke."

"Lack of foresight."

I shrugged. "I don't know..." I said, picking up my groceries.

"Oh...I know...I know.."

I turned around and stared at her. She smiled, stabbing the air with her fingers.

"Union....Japanese no have, union!"
I nodded slowly.

"So they don't."

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

CAR SALESMAN

It is a derogatory term. CAR SALESMAN. If you really wanted to sum up someone who was a conman or flimflam artist then you called him a car salesman. You remember those guys, they would promise you one thing and then suddenly you were in the struggle of your life not to get ripped off. These same guys are now in Washington--they drove--how middle class--and they are asking for billions to save their hides. Now where were they when those big cars of ours dropped by twenty five percent the moment we drove them off the lot? Or how about the second our warranty expired and the transmission went out? Or that strange noise our new car made and you brought it back to the dealer to find out it was kanooten valve or the brakes or the axle...oh and by the way, you know that bumper to bumper warranty you are paying fifteen hundred bucks for--ITS NOT COVERED UNDER THAT. Then we walk out a cool thousand bucks poorer, going to some garage guy to fix our problem because we can't afford to go back to the dealer. NOW WHY IS THAT? Or how come those foreign cars seem to be so much tighter in the steering and not break down and even cost less? Now why is that? Or the way we would watch our gas tanks get sucked dry by engines that are about as efficient as a steam locomotive while the rest of the world is working on hybrids and fuel efficient engines. Now our cars are worthless. If you own anything over a mid size car then good luck. Your blue book tells it all. And these same guys who gave us forty five thousand dollar price tags...who made so much money on the SUV's they made them like hotcakes--these same guys--these car salesman--now want to get billions of dollars because they priced themselves out the market and didn't bother to give America a decent car? You know what, let them walk back to Detroit. They probably wouldn't make it in their cars anyway.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/