Why did the H of Rep shoot down the bailout plan in US? I don't get it. some people have argued that at 1M USD a month, the corporate leaders wages are obscene and i concur. but then do you throw the baby with the bath water? in any case can it be objectively said that the market crush was caused by salaries? hardly. tough economic times in the world have been caused by among other things good economic times! indeed when you want to know your weakness look at your very strong point there in lies the weakest link. the boom is what made people spend like crazy, buy guzzlers, pay huge, walk into everyone's mess and try to solve the problems of 6 billion people with the same template. I just continue drawing parallels with the African scenario. just over there in SA, why did they sack arguably their best economy manager ever? to spite their face! just funny decisions like over here at home when we decided to shove the bomas draft to spite one man. the man whose family fate has been intricately intertwined with our collective history. the aftermath has been disastrous.
But how is it helping, the two protagonists shouting themselves hoarse accusing each other of sabotage while the average tax payer continues to lose his 30, 40 or more years of savings each passing day. for what gains? What were those guys thinking? i have been looking for some strong argument. something novel, a debate regal and purple like the great drapes of Roma to support their decision. Nix!
on other matters, the local media houses seem to have had me in mind for some time now and they have included more local content in their repertoire. Artists are being paid better and its very refreshing to watch locally produced shows every day. my absolute favorite right now is Wash and Set which comes on NTV every Thursday now moved to wed. it even beats tahidi high in terms of relevance, casting, production and research. i wish these opportunities were there back then when we used to perform plays for bread and fanta!
and the Sunday Sation is trying to clone whispers son of soil and they have promised hefty salary for someone who can fit into his shoes. bad idea. you can never clone talent. just let someone else provide his own style the way jalango had done in kiss. he never cloned nyambane who , phew , resigned at last.
OD, the current economic mess is actually not even about the CEO salaries. Private companies can choose to pay their CEOs whatever they wish, and whatever shareholders will not protest. These salaries did not come from taxpayer money. However, the opposition to the bail-out is the fact that the bail-out money will come from government funded coffers which in essence, are taxpayer funded.
ReplyDeleteAmericans flooded their representatives with phone calls and emails urging them not to vote for this bill. Some of these representatives are up for re-election in November, and thus, were afraid to go against their contituents wishes.
What's the root of this problem?This debuckle stemmed from a lack of oversite in the way banks and other financial institutions have conducted business in the last 8 years. Republican lobbyists rallied for deregulation and this is the outcome of deregulation. Certain practices that had been in place to protect lenders and borrowers were done away with. Subprime and predatory loans were extended to some who could never repay them; these loans were bundled and resold as mortgage backed securities that could never be sustained once the housing bubble busted. Thousands of unscrupulous people have made tons of money from this mess, and without certain safeguards in place, the bail-out will be nothing more than a temporary elastoplast on a gushing wound. The whole system needs to be re-regulated.
The bill that was presented to congress last week (it's actually available online) gave too much power to the Treasury Secretary (currently Henry Paulson, former CEO of Goldman-Sachs - do you see a conflict?) and lacked regulatory provisions. Most of those who voted it down needed to see some oversite provisions before handing a blank check to one man. This is currently being worked on and will be re-presented to the senate and congress today. Senate votes today and Congress will vote tomorrow.
Most people did not like the urgency with which the president and his treasury secretary were presenting this. It reminded a lot of people of the urgency with which Bush had presented the Iraq war which not only turned out to be based on unfounded information, but has cost the country more than it can afford right now. The country is in a major deficit at the moment. There is no money for a bail-out. So if and when this happens, it needs to be very well accounted for.
Changing gears - about Whispers, I agree, you can't clone that! Someone needs to come up with something new and different.
@no-spin, you just answered my call! that's some imperial and regal argument now. Now i see the bigger picture
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