Economics Wrap-Up

Jobless Rate Hits Four-Year High (Nothing to add to that.) GM, Other Automakers on Road to Grim Year in Sales U.S. sales fall 13% in July. Companies blame pickup trucks, SUVs and tighter credit. GM reports a huge quarterly loss. Parasite Runs Business into Ground, Receives More Money & Free Plane Rides If just one of these bloodsucking "executive" leeches were to receive anything besides the keys to the vault & the company plane when they are "replaced" for utter gross incompetence, it might give someone, somewhere (not us, mind you) the slightest reason to think that there truly is a free market, & that people who make "bad decisions" were actually suffering as a result. (Those who made the "decision" to be born poor, non-white or both, of course, are punished every day by predatory capitalists & the police, to name but two groups who punish but are seldom punished.) Today's case in point is the sad tale of one David Sambol, prexy (but not for much longer) of Countrywide Financial Corp., whose mortgage-related fuck-ups resulted in Bank of America taking the outfit over, to prevent further collapse of America's financial house of cards. You've probably heard the whining refrain of glibertarians world-wide: "They take the risks, they should be well-rewarded." The corollary, that they should be forced to work as greeters for Wal*Mart at no-benefit minimum wage, or be forced to dig ditches eight hrs. a day (We'd love to see one of these bloated parasites try some physical labor, & then watch as his heart exploded.) if they totally screw up, causing thousands to lose their jobs, never seems to be mentioned, let alone carried out. Mr. Sambol, after running Countrywide into the ground & causing layoffs of thousands, has been rewarded by Bank of America w/ the following: Severance Package: $28 million in cash & stock Extras: BofA pays his country club dues & for financial consulting services through the end of 2009. And: Use of the Countrywide Gulfstream IV, which he appears to be using to take his family on a nice little three-week safari to Africa before he leaves his position. This seems to have been the straw that broke some camel's back, & inspired "a person w/ knowledge of Countrywide's flight operations" to squeal to The Incredible Shrinking Newspaper™©. How many laid-off Countrywide employees rec'd. anything remotely close to this sort of severance package? Most of those laid-off (What a euphemism that is!) were doubtless living paycheck to paycheck. Last yr. Bloodsucker Sambol earned $10.3 million, but he'll be getting almost three times that to go away. How many of those thrown under the bus got three times their salaries or wages when they got their pink slips?