Sex and the TARP!

Here is a riddle: What is more scandalous than "Sex and the City", costs $2000 / hour, gives intense pleasure to someone other than you, but is paid for with your hard-earned money under TARP?

Guess? Didn't get it?

Ok, here is another hint: What is a legitimate business expense for big Wall Street CEOs in order for them to perform their high-stress, high-paying jobs, delivering "great" rates of returns for their investors?

Give up? Beyond your imagination?

I don't blame you. It is hard to wrap your minds around this creepy excess.

According to an NYC Madam, Wall Street execs and CEOs have been utilizing high-end prostitutes at $2000/hr and paying for them with their corporate credit cards. They have been deducting these expenses illegally as legitimate business expenses. Looks like the TARP money will come in handy to rescue their firms since their routine expenses to "conduct" their business is higher than the profit generated from the business. It is no wonder that the companies that they manage are now running at a loss and need tax payer money to help offset losses. To add insult to injury, even after this illegal, deceitful, fraudulent and distasteful behavior they have the gall to resist Govt. oversight for the TARP money and fight the restrictions placed on their compensations. And they try to get the Republicans to spout crude "wisdom" about Govt interference in their business.

By rights, we, the public, should ask the Govt to prosecute all these executives and recover this money from them. We should also be defining the oversight of company expenses for companies that accept TARP money since we have paid for all this:

- a major New York real estate developer who, according to the list, "will come to the door wearing women's panties," and who spent nearly $100,000

- a partner at the Wall Street law firm Cravath Swaine Moore "looking for a party girl to come fully equipped" and spent a total of $20,000

- an investment banker from Lehman Brothers who saw "Kelsey and Keely together" and later saw "Aria and Skyler at the same time"

- an investment banker at JP Morgan Securities who "loves Brooke" and spent $41,600

- an investment banker at Goldman Sachs who "only wanted all-American girls" and spent $27,000

- a managing director from Merrill Lynch who saw "Lana" using the name "Nataly"

- a managing director from Deutsche Bank "who called about seeing Nataly again"

Join in to leave a message if you don't want to pay for all this.

It's not welfare as long as it is corporate welfare! :)

...So commented a fellow about Huffington Post's article titled, "Citi Jet Purchase: $50 million, 12-seat plane despite $45 Billion Bailout".

I completely agree. There's a different standard out there when it comes to Corporations and Corporate bigwigs. It doesn't matter if they've been and continue to be irresponsible. Doesn't matter that they've made bad decisions. Doesn't matter that they feel entitled. Doesn't matter that they lived life large and enjoyed all the money in the good times and didn't save up for bad times. Doesn't matter that they ran their companies by over extending their debt...

In America, Corporations can do no wrong and are never punished.

It is the people who carry the brunt.

- Bought a home that was within your means but got taken in by an unscrupulous mortgage lender who saddled you with a fancy mortgage instrument that "balloons"?
Hey! you should have done your homework!

- Been absolutely responsible with your money, but now have lost most, if not all, of your hard-earned 401(k)?
Tough luck, mate! No one could have predicted this!

- Been very careful with your home purchase but the value of your home has fallen so much that you've lost all your savings?
Sorry, old champ! That's life!

- Got laid off because your CEO spent the company money on refurbishing his office and now cannot pay you for the honest day's work you are doing? Lost your health insurance since you don't have a job and now cannot pay for your terminally ill wife's treatment?
- Buddy, this is a capitalist society. Don't expect welfare!

But, if you are a bigwig in a Corporation, just go wailing to Washington with a begging bowl.

"Baawwwwlllllllllll! The economy tanked. No one could have predicted this. We cannot run our business. We didn't foresee this. HELP US! Bail us out so that we can continue to squander the common man's hard earned money. "

And the poor sucker taxpayer will come to your rescue.

Your requesIt is being processed.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave...

...when we first practice to deceive!

Ramalinga Raju, the CEO of Sathyam mentioned in his now infamous letter to the Board of Directors of his company, that his fraudulent activity felt akin to riding a tiger. He didn't know how to get off and so kept riding it until he was forced to dismount.

Rhetoric aside, the very first time we make a CHOICE to deceive instead of doing the right and moral thing, we end up weaving a web that soon becomes hard to unravel. There is no way out of the snag other than to cut the string finally. And that is what happened to Ramalinga Raju. Sadly, his crime did not just impact himself and his family. His multitude of employees, shareholders, the Indian public and press - everyone has been affected.

The more power a person has, the longer the fall. And they take other innocents down with them. It comes down to my oft-repeated refrain - It is imperative that Corporations, since they actually are, ultimately a collection of individuals, have a social conscience. Something that will keep them honest, something that will alert them when they start to tread the wrong path - a path that will lead to everyone's downfall.

When I was working for a large Fortune 300 company, one of the annual goal setting exercises included a vision and mission statement. Now, if only the vision statement, in addition to the company's vision for its growth and financial bottom line, included a social responsibility statement, it would help keep the focus on being a wholesome company that is well-integrated and has a synergistic relationship with the society that helps it grow.

For, after all, which predatory relationship has ever prospered?

Corporations, like individuals, animals and the eco-system as a whole, need to function in a mutually symbiotic manner in their environment. Animals know that you cannot survive if you bite the hand that feeds you.

In the case of Sathyam and in the case of Bernie Madoff, both entities did not understand this fundamental fact - Society is the hand that feeds them. If they act in a predatory manner within the very society that breathes spirit into them, there is no way they can survive. They will be riding a tiger. And when they fall, they bring others down with them.

I urge the corporate bigwigs to incorporate a Social responsibility statement that keeps them on the straight and narrow path. Ultimately, it will benefit them.

All's fair in love and war and BUSINESS!!

I read an article on Huffington post that caused me to step back and say, "What? Seriously? ONLY in America! " And then I read the same article on CNN and knew for sure it WAS a joke. Only, the joke was on US, the American people!

It was an article titled, "Porn Kings want bailout". Aside from the ridiculousness of the assertion that bailing out the auto industry and the financial sector somehow makes it alright for other "industries" to seek similar tax payer help, the saddest joke about this article is that no one questioned the enormous travesty of referring to the porn output as "industry".

For long I have felt that we are willing to make enormous concessions to businesses as long as they fulfill that one reason for their existence - making money. Money and the making of money seems to condone every mistake, every wrongdoing and every wrong purpose. It is indeed a sad day for us when we can accept the exploitation of women and teens in the name of money making and justify these businesses as "industries".

Adding insult to injury is asking for taxpayer bailout to sustain the "industry" in the name of sexual health for America.

As long as the focus of business is only money, we are going to get slammed in many ways by unscrupulous business men. Businesses and corporations need to have a social conscience - there is no way around that.

If only we would stop to THINK before rushing in to FIX!

"Folks! A lot of people miss those old drive-in theaters. But I say, any theater can be a drive-in, if you ram it with your HUMMER!" So, quipped Stephen Colbert in his Colbert report.

Seems to me that this is how we Americans solve our problems. Just ram in, preferably with a Hummer and you will be fine! This is exactly how I see our latest economic crisis being handled. First, Paulson convinced the Congress and the Senate to dish out $700 B of taxpayer money with no questions asked, so that he could ram it through the financial system, regardless of whether the banks wanted it or not (according to some reports) and hoped that it would solve the problem.

It didn't.

All it did, was create a situation like the one I have seen in India before. When one goes to a temple in India, there is usually a loooooong line of beggars seated at the entrance with their palms stretched out. And you better decide upfront if you want to give alms that particular day. Because, be prepared, when you start doling it out to one person, the other beggars appear out of the woodwork and you cannot escape. So, you keep delving into your purse to find more cash until you run out of the green stuff and then and only then, will the beggars disappear.

So Paulson created a situation like that, only on a MUCH larger scale. We now need to ram more money into the system. Just what exactly the system is, no one knows. All we know is that it is NOT middle class American people.

So we do what we are best at doing: American problem solving - there is a problem, pour in cash, it will go away. We don't blink, we don't think, ala Sarah Palin. We just dive in and pour the cash. That's what we are now trying to do with the Big three Detroit Auto makers. There are already reports of many more companies asking for a handout.

...While Middle class America is left seated at the temple door.

Can we stop for a moment and THINK? Can we try to identify the problem before rushing to fix it? I know, I know, the auto makers say that they wont last this month without money. But it cannot have happened in a jiffy exactly like Paulson said the financial storm happened in a jiffy.

What, exactly, are we trying to solve here? What is our major problem?
1. Is it the American auto manufacturing that we want to save?
2. Is it American jobs we are trying to save?
3. Is it both?
4. Are there not other options for creating jobs and other futuristic options for personal transportation?

For instance, I just read in Fortune magazine that Abu Dhabi is creating a completely self sufficient city in the middle of the desert. Read, "A Green city blooms in the desert" by Julia Joffe in the December 2008 Fortune magazine. The city is called "Masdar" and it will be home to 1,500 businesses, 50,000 residents, and 40,000 commuters, will use 75% less electricity and 60% less water. Personal transportation pods will be powered by lithium batteries and will replace cars.

The cost of building this city: $22B, about 2/3rds of what the Auto makers have requested Congress to pay for their initial bailout. It is estimated that they will come back for more before 2009 is out. Experts suggest it will cost the taxpayer between $75B and $125B. And we are not even sure if cars are the transportation mechanism of the future!

Wouldn't a project like the one planned by Abu Dhabi create jobs immediately? Wouldn't it create renewable energy, help America lead the world in urban planning and pour money where we need to be in the future? Wouldn't it also solve our future transportation needs? Are cars the ONLY way to travel? And are the auto manufacturers predictions of car sales for the future going to hold out? Are we pouring money before stopping to take a breath?

Don't get me wrong: I have tremendous admiration for the good men and women who represent the American public in the Congress and the Senate. I think they are doing a fantastic job, to the best of their ability. They have been tough on the Auto makers and have learned from their experience of handing Paulson money with no strings attached.

Only, if only we would stop to THINK before rushing in FIX!