TresSugar

Front Page: CEOs at Bailed-Out Banks Increase Their Perks

TresSugar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:00:59 -0700

The good times are still rolling for CEOs at bailed-out banks: they received huge perks last year while taxpayers footed the multibillion-dollar bill. - Washington Post
Afghanistan will hold a runoff presidential election on Nov. 7 following allegations of fraud that tainted the previous results. - AP
An Iranian-American academic has been sentenced to 12 years in Iranian prison for contributing to unrest after the last election. - AP
It appears less likely that international leaders will sign a comprehensive treaty against climate change when they meet in Copenhagen this December. - New York Times
States cannot afford the death penalty, according to a new study. - CNN
Check out the original balloon boy! - SFGate

Picture It: Death of a Postman

CitizenSugar — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:30:39 -0700

Mailboxes wait in limbo, or outside a San Francisco mail sort center, until their fate is determined. The US Postal Service showed up on the floor of Congress Wednesday, mailbags open for bailout change. Cutting service and charging for secure(r) email seem increasingly likely since May's ¢2 stamp hike (from ¢42 to ¢44) won't be enough to stop USPS from going bankrupt by the year's end.

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Front Page: White House Braces For Bailout Backlash

CitizenSugar — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 07:39:31 -0700

After news that AIG used bailout funds to pay $165 million in executive bonuses, the White House is preparing for populist backlash against the bailout. - New York Times
Joe Fritzl, the Austrian man who held his daughter captive in the basement for decades and fathered her children, has plead guilty to rape, incest, and false imprisonment. - Times of London
A woman shot by a 30-inch arrow on the streets of New York City yesterday is recovering after surgery. Police believe the arrow was shot at random. - Fox News
The Obama Administration has decided to stop calling inmates at Guantanamo Bay enemy combatants, and plans to incorporate international law as its basis for holding suspects. - Reuters
Federal authorities are trying to freeze $93 million in assets belonging to Ruth Madoff, the wife of ponzie schemer Bernie Madoff. - MSNBC
Astronauts aboard the Discovery space shuttle are headed to the international space station, after they took off for space yesterday. - AP

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Bailouts Gone Wild: Porn Industry Asks Congress For $5 Billion

CitizenSugar — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:02:57 -0800

The porn industry is hurting! With less money to waste, Americans are being forced to look at free Internet porn or seek meaningful relationships. And now, porn industry bigwigs have asked Congress for the same ride given to car manufacturers.

If they're going to make this work, Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt and porn mogul Joe Francis really need to get their stories straight. Francis sees the bailout as necessary to meet the increasing demand for porn. He said, "In difficult economic times, Americans turn to entertainment for relief. More and more, the kind of entertainment they turn to is adult entertainment."

Yet Flynt believes it's necessary to stimulate (sorry!) America's sexual appetite. "With all this economic misery and people losing money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind."

Rest assured, bailout or no bailout, the industry is not at risk of collapsing. "But as long as the government is handing out money," Francis said, "we want to be there to take it."

Meanwhile, they await Congress's response.

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Should Bailed-out Banks Disclose What They Do With Money?

LibertySugar — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:00:29 -0800

Out of the 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money, none would answer four simple questions posed by the Associated Press: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest?

When asked, a spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in taxpayer money, said: "We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it.' We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to." The $700 billion given to the Treasury Department to buy stock in banks is intended to encourage banks to lend money. Yet lawmakers put in no mechanism or consequences to make sure that happens.

Meanwhile, the AP also reports that the 116 banks that have received a bailout spent $1.6 billion on top-tier executive compensation in 2007. So while their banks faced impending collapse and a need for billions in bailouts, the leaders of the banks received millions in salaries. And now - they won't even tell us where our money is going! I think some executives, and lawmakers who let the bailout go through without any strings, have some explaining to do.

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Briefing Book! Bailout Tops $8 Trillion in Taxpayer Money

LibertySugar — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:00:12 -0800

Bailout: How much? Bailout payout tops $8 trillion. - Politico
Russia: Has Cold War II started? Russia sending warships to Cuba again. - 23/6
Bush: Sad you didn't get to see Jon Stewart's reaction to the shoe incident? Watch other late-night comedians react. - Huffington Post
The Future: Dubai is the new Venice? The 21st-century looks more like the 14th century than it does the 20th. - Good

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Front Page: Report Reveals Few Bailout Restrictions

CitizenSugar — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:00:33 -0800

The Government Accountability Office has concluded that the Treasury Department has no mechanisms to comply with the $700 billion bailout plan restrictions. Speaker Pelosi called the report evidence that the Treasury Department's actions are not accountable to the American taxpayer. - AP
Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss reclaimed his Senate seat after winning yesterday's Georgia runoff. The Democrats will not have a 60 seat filibuster-proof majority. - AP
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Pakistan to cooperate fully in bringing the Mumbai attackers to justice. While in Delhi she said Pakistan has a "special responsibility to do so." - BBC News

Harvard's endowment, the largest in the US, has taken at 22 percent hit in the last four months. It has lost $8 billion. - AP
Passengers flying out of Los Angeles had to wait nine hours on the ground before take off because the smaller airport did not the staff to process exciting passengers. The original flight would have taken less than five hours. - LA Times

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Briefing Book! Michael Moore on the Big Three Bailout

LibertySugar — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:30:34 -0800

Detroit: What does Michael Moore think? Maker of Roger & Me shares thoughts on automaker bailout. - Donklephant
Congress: Big win for liberals? Henry Waxman has just ousted longtime chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, in a big win for environmentalists. - Talking Points Memo
Obama: Did you miss 60 Minutes? Watch the Obamas' interview in 60 seconds. - 23/6
Stevens: Let's have a round of applause for corruption? Ted Stevens makes farewell speech in the Senate, and received a standing ovation. – Politico
Communists: Raul Castro sings for Chairman Mao? Cuban leader serenades Chinese president with a song about China's Cultural Revolution. - Shanghaiist

Should Congress Bail Out the Automakers?

CitizenSugar — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:30:32 -0800

If Michigan-bred Mitt Romney doesn't think Congress should bailout the auto industry, then the plan to save Detroit might need a set of jumper cables. Mitt wrote today:

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course - the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor, and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority, and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

But not everyone agrees with Mitt's persuasive case. In an attempt to persuade Congress that it must act, the big-three automakers may have given themselves a flat tire. Yesterday, the CEOs of GM, Ford, and Chrysler flew into Washington on private jets (which cost about $36 million each) so they could make in-person appeals for $25 billion of taxpayer money. Looks like first-class wouldn't suit the first-class beggars.

For more on how much the companies spend on private jets, and for some arguments in support of a bailout, read more.

ABC News reports that a private jet trip from Detroit to Washington, DC costs about $20,000. Ford's CEO takes the company's private jet back from Detroit to Seattle each weekend, while making $28 million as his annual salary. Meanwhile, thousands of employees get laid off, and the companies are asking the public for billions.

Still, if the car companies fail average Americans, not just jet-setting CEOs, have much to lose. The automakers and their affiliates make up 2 percent of the American workforce, and nearly one million Americans participate in GM's pension program, which would cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars if it collapsed.

What do you think the US government should do?

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Front Page: Plan to Aid Homeowners, Huge Blasts Hit India, Economy Officially Shrinking

CitizenSugar — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:56:11 -0700

Plan to Aid Homeowners:
The Bush administration is discussing a plan to help three million homeowners with their mortgages so they can stay in their homes. In what could be the most comprehensive effort directed at the housing crisis, the government would absorb half of the losses on home loans if mortgage companies lower payments for five years. The $50 billion cost would be part of the $700 billion bailout.

Huge Blasts Hits India:
A series of bomb explosions in India has killed at least 50 people and injured more than 150. There were at least 18 blasts, most in the main city of Guwahati. No one has yet claimed responsibility but police suspect the separatist United Liberation Front of Assam. The police chief says, "No other group can trigger so many blasts in so many places in such a coordinated fashion."
Economy Officially Shrinking:
The US economy shrank 0.3 percent during the period between July and September. Consumer spending, which makes up two-thirds of the US economy, shrank by 3.1 percent, the first contraction since 1991. The shrinkage means the US is halfway to the standard definition of a recession, which means two consecutive quarters of negative growth, though in the US, there's never a recession until the National Bureau of Economic Research decides there is.

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