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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (452342)	1/29/2009 8:53:32 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1574711

If Israel had annexed the West Bank, it wouldn't have put it under an autonomous Palestinian government LOL. What's autonomous about the Palestinian gov't. Israel says jump; they ask how high? And if they don't jump? F-16s will flood the skies. Autonomous Palestinian gov't is like Bush saying he's doing everything he can for New Orleans. There is no there there.

To: TimF who wrote (452342)	1/30/2009 11:15:54 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1574711

From the TSCM website: Wall Street Bonuses:The Emperor Has No Clothes 1/30/2009 7:00 AM EST In September 2007 I wrote a series of pieces which laid out certain elements that I believe were at the foundation of todays financial imbroglio. In essence my posture at that juncture, was that the top brass of financial institutions were more concerned about their own bonuses than doing the prudent thing for their shareholders. Dilutive equity issuances would have hurt many of these executives at comp time.Thus they did not do the proper thing and make modestly dilutive stock issuances. These could have been done at far higher prices which would have created the liquidity necessary to work through the issues. I felt then,as I do today ,that this whole crisis could have been averted or at minimum substantially lessened. For example,when I wrote those pieces Citigroup still traded for 46,Bank of America traded for 49,Morgan Stanley for 63 etc. For political reasons, the new President pointed out yesterday that significant bonuses where still paid out last year.While I am generally opposed to grandstanding of this type, the political class is now doing something that the institutional investors should have done years ago. They are saying "enough is enough". The Wall Street leadership did not pay attention to the old rubric of bulls get a little, bears get a little, and hogs get slaughtered.Now their comp committee will have its meetings in Washington DC In my view Wall Street has been overpaid for decades. I have never subscribed to the notion that you have to pay these individuals or they will go someplace else. It is ridiculous. Even in the best of times that was a myth.I think I have considerable standing to make this as I worked in and among this crowd for years.A large percentage of these guys are professional Charlatans.Obviously the disasterous John Thain interview earlier this week showed how out of touch these individuals are. It is truly an embarssment for the industry. . The reality is that most of these multi million dollar Investment Bankers and Traders are only as good as the name on their business card and the balance sheet they have access too. Yes,there are a few Investment Banking rainmakers. However,they are few and far between. As for the traders ,the system is totally scewed in terms of them taking excess risk. They win if the trades work and the firm loses if they don't. This year was a once in a lifetime chance for the Street to get realistic on compensation. In my view there should have zero bonuses across the board at any of the major firms with the sole exception being the profitable boutiques. The argument frequently forwarded is what about the guys who did their jobs and were profitable in their business units.My view toward that is, yes that may be the case. However,their extra compensation is a function of the "bonus pool" and also the "franchise" and balance sheet. If the firms are losing money hand over fist and issuing stock to stay afloat there should be no bonus pool at all.Individual retail producers are different. They have lived off the land for years and have my complete respect for that. At the end of the day it has now been shown that the Emperor has no clothes."