“Feinberg said that the companies put pressure on him to allow them to pay CEOs enough money to keep them from leaving,” the report says. Similar pressures were applied by Treasury officials, who argued that higher salaries are needed to maintain the competitiveness of companies, which will expedite the returns of TARP funds.

Patricia Gaoggn from the Finance Ministry said in response to the report that the office actually cut the salaries of 25 CEOs that had the highest salaries. “Our office effectively limits salaries in the extracted seven companies in which we had authority to do so”, wrote Gaoggn.

The US government introduced a huge bailout package during the recession to “kick-start” the economy. Here are a few details you probably didn’t consider:

Total bailout money (approximate) = $700 billion.

Sounds ordinary? Yes it does; just like any other government financial figure, it’s in billions of dollars. It’s big money, but who cares? If this is the way you thought of it, think again.

$700 billion = $700 000 000 000

Does it feel bigger now?

The 2008 estimate of the total population of the United States is 312 million. Let’s do the math.

$700 000 000 000 / 312 000 000      =      $2 243.59 for every person in America.

For an average family of four, that’s $8 974.36

Remember the media talking about all those job losses? People going bankrupt? The desperate poor and lower class? The economy suffering? What really happened to all that money? It went to big corporations and banks. I guess we were all thinking: Oh my, I pity the shareholders, those poor millionaires, they just lost some money. Aww.

A few recipients of the bailout money:

AIG $128.5 billion
Freddie Mac 45.6 billion
Citigroup* 45 billion
Bank of America* 45 billion
JPMorgan Chase 25 billion
Wells Fargo 25 billion
Fannie Mae 16.2 billion
General Motors 13.4 billion
Goldman Sachs 10 billion
Morgan Stanley 10 billion
*Not including loss-limit insurance on assets

Sources: US Treasury, Federal Reserve

. . . . .

When those corporations made profits, their executives ate it all, and distributed some of it amongst the shareholders. So what happens when they make losses? Why don’t they distribute their losses amongst their executives, CEOs, and shareholders? Why do we have to pay for their losses?

What if we’d used this money in better ways?

According to a CNN report (which can be viewed here: http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/04/news/economy/jobs_outlook/), the labor department estimated a loss of 8 million jobs.

That’s 8 000 000 jobs.

What if we divided $700 000 000 000 among the people who were affected by the 8 000 000 job losses?

$700 000 000 000 / 8 000 000      =      $87 500 for every job that was lost.

If we had put that money into social security and employment insurance, we could have made up for all those lost jobs. A working class family (of 2 workers) who lost their jobs would’ve received $175 000 in social insurance benefits. For most families, it would take 3 years to earn that much money, more than enough time to find another job or move elsewhere.

Instead? We gave the money to “shareholders” and corporations going bankrupt so their CEOs could get millions of dollars in bonuses.

Note that some of these jobs were part time jobs. Many Americans had more than one job, so $87 500 is actually an underestimate.

The government is not poor. Nearly 50% of what you earn goes to the government. They just spend money on the wrong things. This must change.

Red Tape:  This is supposed to mean bureaucracy.  I get that—but why is it red?  When the police cordon off a scene do they use red tape?  No.  In fact, has anyone seen any red tape for a very long time?  I am sure it exists—but not in my household.  So where is this red tape?

Going over the cliff: Much like the tape, this cliff seems to be rather conspicuous by its absence.  Where is it?  How long till we go over it?  How high is it?  Or can we even get to it, seeing as we’re all being held back by this red tape…

Best practice: This is something we want to do.  Because we want it to work.  So, for example, if we were to go over the cliff, the best practice would be to 1) remove the tape; 2) find the cliff; and 3) jump.  Thank goodness we’re not talking about a worst practice…

Transparent: This is what the government assures us it is.  (That’s probably why we have all these last-minute deals made for absolutely no apparent reason.)  But hey, they’re on YouTube and if that’s not transparent, I don’t know what is!

Real time: We can watch the government on YouTube being transparent nowadays.  Which seems a bit unreal to me.

Sweeping legislation: Have you even heard any Congressman worth his or her salt announce legislation that is not sweeping?  And is that why our Capitol is so clean? 

Toxic assets: Arguably the worst piece of marketing since … TARP or AIG.  But they will save the economy—which I guess is why we want them.

Broad context: As opposed to the narrow context.  The narrow context being (I suppose?) the elusive cliff.

Young people: The definition of this once pretty straightforward term seems rather ambiguous.  Often it means anyone who knows how to use the Internet.

In the loop: Everything is so transparent that we need to be inside this loop just to know some of what is going on.  (With our money, I might add.)

Out of the loop: This probably refers to the young people who can only catch our transparent government on YouTube.  That’s why no politician will ever say this—except perhaps when referring to foreigners.

I am sure there are other phrases that annoy you.  Please list them in the comments box if you feel like commenting.  Let’s see if we can rid our politics of these mind-numbing and meaningless phrases.  It may not improve the outcomes (worst outcomes may still be worst outcomes) but we may at least learn to be honest about what we’re doing!

God for bid if we ask the rich to help support this country, there are many who do. We are now fixating on AIG who basically in a nutshell stole the stimulus funds they received to pay those granted hard earned thinkers bonus instead of using the funds for the purpose of bailing out their issues for our countries benefit. They got caught in this matter our country got upset about it and what is going to happen is they will be forced to return the funds back to the taxpayer. With lots of lies finally admitted their wrongdoings. What did it take congressional hearings to focus on this issue. The country spoke we the people brought this to the governments attention and something is getting done about it so we have a voice in Washington.

If you live here legally were born here legally, even if you are here illegally, you have got to love this country the freedom’s we have and our way of life other wise you would not be here. We have a system even if it is broken that works. We continue to work because we have to support ourselves. The issue of jobs must be first priority. Keep America employed no matter if you are a middle classed worker or a poor person just getting by, keep America employed, lower costs and bring back our business’s from other countries. This does not mean take back all but subsidize some of it and return the big package to America. Their are ways in which we can provide a purpose for America. The wars are over end them, send our troops home to guard our countries interest. The sooner the better our troops return this is what will boost our economy and moral. Our confidence in our Nation. We are done fighting for a cause that is finished although not necessary in the beginning the main terrorist is alive and still poaching on us not in Iraq somewhere else in the world.

I see America getting back bits and pieces again. We will get stronger our president is focused on the economy, his attention needs to stay there and nowhere else. Because he is special in his own special way with his willingness to be open to all suggestions. Because he is one man that can get the job done over some time. We will begin to see this country rebuild into a stable nation. He is willing to rock the boat and push out the garbage. Although politics plays a big part in his future, can he hold down the fort? Our president today will fight for us, something about him appeals to me and many others. This is our ticket out of what seems to be an endless slump. Mr. Bush really stopped up the sink, with good intentions I will always respect every president in this country no matter what, just because we have one. Our new president I believe is a peoples president, this is just what we need. Let us pray that we do not have to lay to rest this president. As others in the past have tried to be honest and good.

Image by Paul Keller via Flickr

God bless America and thank you American Troops for your sacrifice for whatever cause we face now and in the future.  Let us have a voice and continue to speak out to America our wants, our needs, and our future holdings with other nations to invite others to acknowledge the same things in their own countries, after all it is humanity that holds the earth not beasts or creatures of the past, human beings that shed blood and function no matter the skin color or opinion. We have got to change humanity into the right thinking, instead of fighting each other join each other, be allowed to share opinions, religions, beliefs, we are people that is all. Our cause does not matter if we cause to harm to others then we make it matter. We are a Nation of piece of love, really not of war or the willingness to bomb anyone or terrorize your nation. With that I say let me live on in peace along with every man woman and child, must keep trudging the road to happy destiny.

Image via Wikipedia

What is the illuminati? The illuminati is believed to be the organization that rules the world. The illuminati consists of thousands of people, there are 300 leaders. Well, there has to be alot in order to control the world. The illuminati are experts in how the brain works. The illuminati invented many theories and lyes, in order to keep people thinking about those lyes, rather than thinking about where all the money AIG recieved came from, and other things alike.