Your tax dollars bought hookers for Wall Street

A Wall Street madam told the ABC program 20/20 this evening that she had 10,000 clients from Wall Street, who spent millions of dollars on her services.

According to Kristin Davis, who pled guilty last year to charges of running a prostitution business that used more than a hundred women,

Obama to Limit TARP Executive Pay to $500,000

Update: Cloak and Dagger alert! Executive pay limits can be waived!:

Those same rules, however, would be voluntary for most recipients of government aid. Companies could waive the restrictions by informing shareholders.

Get that? Voluntary, just inform shareholders you are handing over huge wads of cash to people who ran your company into the ground to the point you need taxpayer money...wala, not a problem.

This is a shocker. Obama to Limit Executive Pay at Companies Getting Aid.

About time!

President Barack Obama will announce today that he’s imposing a cap of $500,000 on the compensation of top executives at companies that receive significant federal assistance in the future, responding to a public outcry over Wall Street excess.

Accountablity? That's for the mere citizens....Not CEOs...nor House Chairmen, eh Barney?

Gosh Barney, what's up with this. I've been a big fan of yours, more fool me it would seem, as I've watched you go up against the GOP on the cable bloviator fests. But what about this Barn?

As usual there is clearly more going on here than meets the eye!

I found the part where Rep Sherman noted that, yes Virginia, he is hearing from his constituents about 'accountability' which clearly means something different in the D.C. Village than it does out here in taxpayer land.

James Lieber in Village Voice is a MUST read

What Cooked the World's Economy? It wasn't your overdue mortgage.

By James Lieber

Lieber asks all the hard questions - you know, the ones the answers to which are really, really embarassing. For example, where exactly has the $7 or $8 trillion from the Fed gone to?

In mid-September, when it was on the ropes, AIG received an astonishing $85 billion emergency line of credit from the Fed. Soon, that was supplemented by another $67 billion. Much of that money, to use the government's euphemism, has already been "drawn down." Shamefully, neither Washington nor AIG will explain where the billions went. But the answer is increasingly clear: It went to counterparties who bought derivatives from Cassano's shop in London.

AP Investigation: Bail Out Banks sought foreign workers instead of U.S. workers!

This is a bombshell. Banks, while receiving billions in TARP bail out money and firing U.S. workers right and left sought foreign workers. The associated press did an investigation on where your taxpayer money is going and this is what they found!

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.

Best Rant of the Week! Senator Claire McCaskill - "These people are Idiots!" (video)

Now this is the Senator I remember, Claire McCaskill Speaks Truth!

CNN:

We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer. They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out $18 billion in bonuses.

WSJ Reporting Government Officials Talking $1-$2 trillion MORE in TARP funds

As expected and predicted by Roubini, even people on this blog, the Wall Street Journal is reporting this little gem:

U.S. government officials seeking to revamp the financial bailout have discussed spending another $1 trillion to $2 trillion to help restore banks to health, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

If you havn't read Institutional Risk Analyst yet, you need to NOW

Last week ago, Institutional Risk Analytics interviewed Josh Rosner of Graham Fisher & Co and David Kotok of Cumberland Advisors, and the discussion is one of the most direct and revealing of the true political nature of the financial collapse I have yet seen. As I have written before, using reports from the Fed, FDIC, and Comptroller of the Currency, the financial problems are very tightly concentrated in a handful of the largest banks, with over 8,000 plus smaller and regional banks having declined to participate in Wall Street’s derivatives madness.

Pelosi - More TARP

Well, as we all know insolvent banks need to be fed even more money to operate and instead of plain nationalizing them we have Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi considering even more financial bail out TARP money!

Rush Limbaugh defends Merrill Lynch extravagance as stimulus

Hat tip to Bob Sackamento, who diaried on DailyKos this gem from wrong-wing blubberbrain Rush Limbaugh, by way of National Review Online:

Obama was angry that Merrill Lynch used $1.2 million of TARP money to remodel an executive suite. Excuse me, but didn't Merrill have to hire a decorator and contractor? Didn't they have to buy the new furnishings? What's the difference in that and Merrill loaning that money to a decorator, contractor and goods supplier to remodel Warren Buffet's office? Either way, stimulus in the private sector occurs. Are we really at the point where the bad PR of Merrill getting a redecorated office in the process is reason to smear them? How much money will the Obamas spend redecorating the White House residence?

TARP