Cloudy / 58° FJohn Eby: Skewed values enable Wall Street, begrudge teachers $48,000
Published 11:39pm Monday, February 28, 2011I’d call it a blatant double standard. Financial crooks who brought the world economy to its knees not only won’t go to jail, but their federal government protects them rather than prosecutes them. What seemed like every major bank and financial company on Wall Street was embroiled in an obscene criminal enterprise that impoverished millions and wiped out trillions of dollars of wealth. Then they had the audacity to take time out from counting their loot to come to the very taxpayers they destroyed, cup in hand, for bailouts which sent them back on their merry, very profitable, way.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which employs a reported 1,100 investigators, waited until the statute of limitations expired to even question Morgan Stanley chief John Mack about insider trading.
Wall Street regulation is such an oxymoron, we could dent the deficit by disbanding the laundry list of public and quasi-public agencies tasked with getting the ball rolling on investigating financial crime that seem too inbred to function. I’ve heard of the Federal Reserve and FDIC, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., but not the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Besides insider trading, the SEC keeps an eye peeled for “disclosure violations,” making sure publicly-traded companies release financial information grounded in reality. But it lacks prosecutorial power, so cases get referred to the Justice Department. In reality, SEC Manhattan referrals frequently end up in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, where future Mayor Rudy Giuliani made his name.
The justice system not only fails to punish financial criminals, but evidence suggests it has evolved into providing protection independent of politics or prevailing ideology. After all, the cozy bureaucracy is on a first-name basis with its targets.
The result is a class of non-jailable perps and a dysfunctional system dedicated to rooting out criminal responsibility only to expunge it from the accused.
Hot pursuit by the SEC has been compared to O.J.’s search for the real killers.
Remember Sunbeam and swaggering CEO Al “Chainsaw” Dunlap? The SEC meted out a $500,000 fine for a guy with an estimated worth of $100 million.
Barred from ever running a public company again meant retiring on his remaining $99.5 million, plus royalties from his memoir, “Mean Business.”
Is it any wonder Wall Street execs feel emboldened and entitled? These chums switch sides more often than members of Congress swinging through the revolving door to become lobbyists in the private sector.
The system’s so corrupt that firms like Goldman Sachs and AIG regard the SEC as their Justice Department intermediary, negotiating fines that will exempt them from jail time. Banks already had the upper hand by top talent hiring on with corporate law firms over the mismatched government. I’m not looking at this sleazy swamp through a partisan lens, either.
President Obama’s top private campaign contributor? Goldman Sachs. A Citigroup executive headed his economic transition team. His new chief of staff came over from JP Morgan Chase.
Then turn on your TV to see where revolution is fomenting today. Study the screen for several seconds to determine whether protest signs nodding angrily are in the Mideast or Midwest.
It’s easy to see why conservative Gov. Scott Walker can look over from third base, certain he stroked a triple, even while he’s getting punked on the phone by a bogus billionaire.
The average Wisconsin teacher makes $48,000 a year, which is a Who even Horton couldn’t hear compared to the clanging of a record $135 billion in pay and benefits Wall Street fat cats gorged on last year.
So what does the government go after? Washington spent $5 billion deporting 393,000. Along the Mexican border at least, felony immigration prosecutions jumped 77 percent; non-felony prosecutions by 259 percent.
The real agenda is crushing unions (and the Democratic Party) once and for all so the GOP can run the table with impunity.
Of the top 10 campaign contributors, seven support conservative causes and three, all unions, back Democrats.
“Bust the unions, it’s over. To pretend that this is about a fiscal crisis in Wisconsin is malarkey,” said Shepard Smith. On Fox!
“I hope he keeps his job,” remarked former Gov. Jennifer Granholm on MSNBC.
The GOP (O stands for overreaching) released an attack ad about Obama’s subservience to his “union bosses,” although White House Press Secretary Jay Carney characterized it more charitably as “standing with America’s working men and women and America’s middle class.” Granholm said, “Unions represent the little guy and the ability of janitors in the Capitol to band together to be able to have some strength in negotiating. When you think about the income disparity in this nation — this growing chasm where the middle class used to be — it’s no wonder why everyday citizens are supporting the right of these workers to band together. I think (Republicans’) ad is going to backfire. It sounds again like the Republicans are standing on the side of billionaires rather than everyday citizens.”
“As governor of Michigan,” Granholm said, “we cut more out of state government than any state in the country with partnership with the unions. Yeah, we had to go to the table and, yeah, we had to negotiate concessions. It was the unions who came to us and said, ‘We’ve got to stop these no-bid practices. We’ll help identify contracts that are wasteful.’ They helped identify $1.1 billion worth of savings in Michigan. To vilify the people who could be coming to you with savings is a completely lazy and wrong-headed way of doing business.”
Even when taxpayers had stakes in the big banks, remember the howl that went up at the proposal to cap salaries at half a million? Why, they risk a “talent drain” absent those obscene compensation packages, even if they were being rewarded for running their own companies into the ground.
The same argument has been noticeably absent in the berating of cops, firefighters and teachers and other bottom-feeders who make 3.7 percent less than those in comparable private-sector banking jobs. In this new gilded age, avid about avarice, our priorities are skewed by plutocrats who treat Congress like their wholly owned subsidiary for campaign contributions little guys can’t match.
John Eby is Daily News managing editor. E-mail him at john.eby@leaderpub.com.
I think you hit the nail on the head John Republicans conspired with wall street to “skew” teachers out of money,you act as though the republicans are prying grannies pension check from her hand that just isnt so and you know it.I take issue with your statement first of all wall street may have helped put the final tap on the nail of the coffin but this nation has been steadily declining for years on Main street,lest we also not forget that when the bail outs took place democrats lead the charge with the head bull at the helm.Here is one heck of a conspiracy theory is it possible this is just the income redistribution part of the equation we were all promised?Some plans are so well laid they wouldnt appear to be a plan at all. There is plenty of blame to go around to everyone but this is anti productive rhetoric.I if I understand your line of thought am lead to believe we must bail out more institutions which leads me to the question with what money?The bail outs that occured were not productive in the long term nor would these be.The troubles are deeper than paying off debt with fiat money,the root of the troubles must be worked on and quickly and that starts with lowering expenditures the state must make so that it can lower taxation to make the business environment much more accommodating so that people again can locate employment and most importantly we as a people must take a second look at whose products we pick up off of the store shelves I.E. more products made in the USA our capitalism is now working against us by design I’m sure.That would be a start at least.You ask do I want unions buying election skew that no I do not just the fact you are complaining about it gives me pause to wonder how you really view things but thank you for helping let the cat out of the bag which is how I view much of this,did the republicans slap the hands of the democratic parties master?.One last thought are you really hailing Granholm as some type of a mentor in policy,really?
Of Americas 100 Top corporations,86 paid no taxes at all.
of these 46 received returns of 47 billion Dollars.
we really do deprive big business.
Everybody wants a free Market, but just what would
that mean?
No rent, No Overhead, No labor cost, No taxes,
no utility cost.
Even a shoplifter must Invest his Time, and the
risk of being caught, prosecuted, and punished.
Yet they scream “Free markets” .
just what has it wrought since Reagan?
Our manufacturing base, and their Jobs
loss of real earnings, and a dependence upon Credit Cards
for the basics for most.
If the current political road continues, you will need to stop
calling Yourselves citizens, and take on the name of serf.
What We need is Laws guaranteeing the fair treatment of Serfs, and
limits of the republican serfdoms.
But that wont happen unless there is a benevolent Lord as the Koch
Brothers.
but they might want to try out, the brides of Newly wedded Serfs first, so that may not happen.
Say it isn’t so John.
Well……It isn’t
The public workers work for the people.
It is not the other way around.
You were wrong with the salary of Wisconsin Teachers.
It is actually $52,644 according to the NEA.
In addition, what you failed to mention is the Cadillac Health care plan and the unbelievable retirement plan. Both of which the teacher or other state worker in Wisconsin pays NOTHING.
Not a single penny.
Completely Free!
This is an additional cost to the State of Wisconsin to the tune of $45,000 additional dollars. John please learn how to report all of the facts and not just the ones that you choose to report to advance you agenda. It is called reporting in a balanced manner.
This total brings the average teachers salary to almost $100,000 in salary and benefits. This is not a sustainable system and must be changed before the whole system comes crashing down.
Mr. Eby once again rants about supposed “Wall St criminals” who allegedly make too much money, and fails to remind us that the issue with the teachers in Wisconsin is not about the “$48,000.” What it is about is the teachers-and many other-public employees who pay little or nothing for their benefits. Benefits that are BETTER than those accrued by their bretheren in the private sector. Most individuals today working in the private sector pay a great deal each month for their insurance and retirement. Yes, it is a burden, but one that we must endure in order to provide ourselves with a modicum of health care and a retirement that does not rely upon Mr. Eby’s beloved “safety net” called Social Security, which incidentally is ANOTHER government program that is bankrupt. The school districts can afford the $48,000. What they can’t afford is the continued rising costs of insurance and retirement-without some help from those insured and retiring. In Michigan a school district is faced with nearly 80% of their budget consumed by “fixed costs.” Wages and benefits comprise the largest percentage of those costs. That leaves very little for programming and curricular items. Were teachers-and administrators-required to contribute to their care that percentage would shrink, and be spent on what schools are intended for-education. As it is, that isn’t happening. In fact, some of that saved money might find its way into the pockets of those teachers in the form of pay raises. Something many districts have had to forego recently. It seems a little ironic that Mr. Eby would be complaining about the number of regulating agencies, and the dearth of regulation, given his record of supporting the growth and feeding of government at the cost of us little people.
We Need to pay reparations!
Yes to Wall Street, what caused the Melt down, that forced
the states to be burdened with pension costs?
Why the Teachers Unions, and Union pension funds of Course.
Most Workers on Wall Street, are feeling very deprived, and
need to be repaired via Reparations.
I propose, a 2 trillion Dollar fund, charged to Organized Labor
to aid in bringing Wall Street Workers to a better feelings for
Themselves, and pay for a paid 3 week retreat in Monaco,
to get away and be counciled on Whom was really to blame.
Then we might once and for all see we need to Out source our
children, and Grandchildren to those great teachers of Bangladesh.