Category: disaster capitalism

October 19, 2008

Fiddling While Rome Burns: Bonuses at All Time High

A record $70 billion in bonuses are planned for Wall Street ‘genuises’this year, despite the worst show of abuse of capitalism in the last 80 years. At one point last week the Morgan Stanley $10.7bn pay pot for the year to date was greater than the entire stock market value of the business. In effect, staff, on receiving their remuneration, could club together and buy […]

October 13, 2008

$400 Billion in Lehman Assets ‘lost’

Virtually overnight, nearly $400 billion in assets with Lehman Brothers were ‘lost’ weeks before last week’s global financial debacle. Story from Bloomberg here . Conspiract story here . What do this mean? Is Lehman the only commercial enterprise where assets are disappearing just before bailouts are being rewarded like treats for Pavlovian dogs? This kind of a story begs a lot of questions. For example, […]

October 11, 2008

Murray Dobbin: 6 Ways Harper is Wrecking Canada

Murray Dobbin of The Tyee, posted this article on rabble.ca about how Harper is ruining Canada. Here’s a snapshot summary, but please read the full article.  It’s worth it. Merging Canada with the US Eroding our infrastructure Destroying our surpluses Increasing risks by deregulating Giving in to big oil No planning for growth

October 11, 2008

Socialism for Bankers, Capitalism for the Rest of Us

The financial crisis is what Naomi Klein calls ‘cry-baby capitalism’.  Things are not going as planned.  We need help. But don’t both helping those who really need it. This story offers a nice summary of some thoughts I’ve had recently about the series of bailouts, including those in Canada. Because it’s listed under the author, which means it may be pushed to the bottom next […]

October 11, 2008

Canadian Election: Harper Twists, Turns and Finally Admits Defeat

Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty were both adamant about the fact that the Canadian government didn’t need to take action in the wake of the financial crisis. They didn’t need to spend money on the automobile industry either. But they did.  In both cases.  At the 11th hour.  Financial story here . Throughout the election, these two characters have repeatedly accused the opposition parties of […]