who is really screwing you news for today

Goldman Sachs: public must learn to 'tolerate the inequality' of bonuses
One of the City's leading figures has suggested that inequality created by bankers' huge salaries is a price worth paying for greater prosperity.

In remarks that will fuel the row around excessive pay, Lord Griffiths, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said banks should not be ashamed of rewarding their staff.

Speaking to an audience at St Paul's Cathedral in London about morality in the marketplace last night, Griffiths said the British public should "tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity for all". [wink wink wink!!]

He added that he knew what inequality felt like after spending his childhood in a mining town in Wales. Both his grandfathers were miners who had to retire from work through injury.

With public anger mounting at the forecast of bumper bonuses for bankers only a year after the industry was rescued by the taxpayer, he said bankers' bonuses should be seen as part of a longer-term investment in Britain's economy. "I believe that we should be thinking about the medium-term common good, not the short-term common good ... We should not, therefore, be ashamed of offering compensation in an internationally competitive market which ensures the bank businesses here and employs British people," he said.

Griffiths said that many banks would relocate abroad if the government cracked down on bonus culture. "If we said we're not going to have as big bonuses or the same bonuses as last year, I think then you'd find that lots of City firms could easily hive off their operations to Switzerland or the far east," he said.

read more @ aletho news


shenandoah: feeling poor? you should. your pay has been flat for 9 years.

by John Galt

October 21, 2009

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes a quarterly report which often is ignored but should drive the point home just how badly middle America is being screwed by our central bank that we all know and love as the Fed. This report is titled the “Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers” and you can review the current data by clicking on the link provided. While everyone is cheering and saying “see we are all making more money” if you review the historic data and chain it to when our fiat currency was more important to this nation, you realize we’re not exactly improving one whole heck of a lot. The median earnings direct from the BLS pages with data from 2000 forward in current 2009 dollars is here:

...[click through for graphics and charts - ed.]

Now that you can see the CORRECT chart from the BLS, let’s extrapolate what it means. Since 2000 the value of the USD has declined approximately 22% (more after the recent price action).

Thus adjusting for the decline in the US Dollar:

$738

Minus 22%

= $575.64

...[more graphics and charts - ed.]

So this means that in constant 1982 dollars you’ve seen an increase in salary of about $7 per week!

That means that over the past 9 years you have seen an increase in your hourly wages (if you are paid by the hour) of:

TWO CENTS.

read more @ shenandoah

MEANWHILE....

WSJ: A Saudi family fued roils world banks

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia -- When Ma'an al Sanea married into one of Saudi Arabia's richest families some 30 years ago, he raised eyebrows among his in-laws by rolling up to the traditional wedding tent in a Rolls Royce.

Today, Mr. Sanea and his wife are battling it out with his in-laws -- the Gosaibi clan -- over fraud accusations and a multibillion-dollar pile of bad debt. In court documents, the Gosaibis allege Mr. Sanea bilked them out of billions of dollars and forced the family business, Ahmad Hamad al Gosaibi & Bros., or Ahab, into default. Mr. Sanea's lawyers have ...

OH sorry you can't read the rest unless you pay for it, but the family fight is ROILING WORLD BANKS, so that should tell you something about "our" banking system. - ed.