Citigroup Inc.'s chairman and chief executive won't receive bonuses for 2008, as part of a series of moves the company announced Wednesday as it formalized its bailout agreement with the U.S. government.

Citigroup Chairman Win Bischoff and CEO Vikram Pandit, along with director and senior counselor Robert Rubin, are foregoing their annual bonuses. Bonuses for other top executives will be "reduced substantially," Mr. Pandit said in a memo to Citigroup employees Wednesday.

I got some guff for suggesting that, because Alan Greenspan is an Ayn Rand disciple, that this recession might be caused by Objectivism.

Newsweek interviews Dr. Yaron Brook, the head of the Ayn Rand Institute about that same issue. Brook basically blames the whole thing on the Federal Reserve, which for a very long time was headed by, uh, Alan Greenspan.

What we need to do is really make the case to the American people—and I think it's an easy case to make—that this is not a failure of free markets, this is not a failure of capitalism, but this is a failure of the exact opposite. It's a failure of the regulatory state. It's a failure of all the government policies of the last eight years. Actually, the last 95 years.

Why do you say the last 95 years?
I believe that the No. 1 cause of the current crisis is Federal Reserve policy. [The Federal Reserve was created in 1913.] The Federal Reserve, by necessity, creates economic problems; no matter how good a Federal Reserve chairman is, he's going to create cycles of booms and busts.

How did the Federal Reserve create today's mess?
The current crisis was caused by the housing bubble, and the primary cause of the housing bubble was the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates at 1 percent in 2003. They were asking people to borrow money, basically begging them. The financial problem we face today was a problem of overleverage, of too much debt—but that's exactly what Federal Reserve policy encouraged.

And then he turns on Greenspan in a big way.

But during that time, the head of the Federal Reserve was Alan Greenspan, a close friend of Ayn Rand and the world's most famous Objectivist.
Yes. Alan Greenspan was quite close to Ayn Rand in the 1960s and 1970s. But from pretty early on, Greenspan was a part of economic policies that I don't think Ayn Rand would have approved of. Yes, he wanted less regulation, but he never talked about rolling back regulation. He never talked about significantly meaningful ways to cut spending, cut taxes. I believe he sold his soul to the devil. Power corrupts, and absolute power—which I think is what you have at the Federal Reserve—corrupts absolutely.

This is almost as delicious as that nasty Republican Sarah Palin blame game that went around right after the election.

Month-to-month decliners were led by Detroit, which fell 4.5%, and San Francisco, which dropped 4.2%. Atlanta, Charlotte, Detroit, Minneapolis, Tampa and Washington had their largest monthly declines on record.

For the seventh-straight month, no region was able to avoid a year-over-year price drop. Phoenix and Las Vegas were again the worst performers, with drops of 33% and 32%, respectively, from a year ago. San Francisco, Miami, Los Angeles and San Diego followed, with declines between 27% and 31%.

Year-over-year, Dallas and Charlotte again had the best relative performance, with declines of 3% and 4.4%, respectively.

Three new markets joined the group of areas posting double-digit declines from a year ago - Atlanta, Seattle and Portland showed drops of 11%, 10% and 10%, respectively.

This...

Members of a posh Upper East Side synagogue suffered a $2 billion bloodbath in Bernie Madoff's epic Ponzi scheme.

The Fifth Avenue Synagogue ranks with the decimated rolls of the Palm Beach Country Club in terms of members scorched by the scam.

And this...

Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff's family is coming apart at the seams, with his two sons refusing to talk to their parents and one getting hit with divorce papers the day of his dad's arrest.

The return of public housing!

In a move that provides relief to thousands of renters who face eviction but draws the federal government even deeper into the housing market, the loan giant Fannie Mae said Sunday that it would sign new leases with renters living in foreclosed properties owned by the company.

It is the first nationwide effort to provide widespread relief to renters ensnared by the unfolding mortgage crisis, and it will effectively transform Fannie Mae — a government-controlled mortgage finance company — into a national landlord...

And now for a walk down memory lane...

Another nail in the coffin of neoliberalism:

Some of the world's wealthiest private and corporate investors are reported to be victims of an alleged $50bn fraud by Wall Street broker Bernard Madoff...

...Mr Madoff founded Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities in 1960, but also ran a separate hedge fund business.

According to the US Attorney's criminal complaint filed in court, Mr Madoff told at least three employees on Wednesday that the hedge fund business - which served up to 25 clients and had $17.1bn under management - was a fraud and had been insolvent for years, losing at least $50bn.

He said he was "finished", that he had "absolutely nothing" and that "it's all just one big lie", and that it was "basically, a giant Ponzi scheme", the complaint said.

He told them that he planned to surrender to the authorities but not before he used his last $200m-$300m to pay "selected employees, family and friends".

Under a Ponzi scheme, also known as a pyramid scheme, investors are promised very high returns on their investment, while in reality early investors are paid with money collected from later investors.

If found guilty, US prosecutors say he could face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5m.

Let's go back to Marx:

Capital is money, capital is commodities. By virtue of it being value, it has acquired the occult ability to add value to itself. It brings forth living offspring, or, at the least, lays golden eggs.

...for a 29-year-old marketing professional;

...for an MIT educated financial engineer;

...and, of course, for a pimp.

...are usually defeated. But not this time:

Bank of America says it will extend credit to a Chicago window and door maker whose workers have occupied the factory for five days.

The bank said Tuesday that it's willing to give the Republic Windows and Doors factory "a limited amount of additional loans." That's so it can resolve claims of employees who have staged a sit-in since Friday. The factory closed Friday after Bank of America canceled its financing.

Thanks for the tip, Travis.

This week's Party Crasher is by stellar News Intern Aaron Pickus, and it's about a Great Depression-themed party that is happy despite all the financial sadness:

I walk in the door, economically beleaguered and financially distraught from my journey, to find myself in the Great Depression. Homemade cider mixed with rum is offered as a defense against the chilly night. One partygoer, somehow able to find a bit of merriment in the midst of the current credit crisis, laughs and bandies about observations on fascism...

There are appearances from a local newsblogger and people from 826 Seattle savaging an alien. You should read it.

The loss of 533,000 payroll jobs was much deeper than the 320,000 job cuts economists were forecasting. The rise in the unemployment rate, however, wasn't as steep as the 6.8 percent rate they were expecting. Taken together, though, the employment picture clearly darkening.

The job reductions were the most since a whopping 602,000 positions were slashed in December 1974, when the country was in a severe recession.

Those who called Obama a socialist were in fact correct. He has to be socialist. Nothing is left for him or us but a return to socialism.

This is not bad news! This is a correction.

The fucking jerks at Wal-Mart couldn't help but mention the coming release of their sales numbers in the press release about the man who was trampled to death by crazed shoppers last friday.

"Tomorrow morning we will release our sales numbers for the month of November," the statement said. "This event is overshadowed by the tragic death of Jdimytai Damour at our Valley Stream, New York store on Nov. 28."

At least his family is suing now.

Read the whole story here.

Drops.

JPMorgan Chase is laying off 3,400 Washington Mutual employees in Seattle, according to spokesman Tom Kelly. That's more than 80 percent of the 4,300 people it employs in the city.

Most branch workers will keep their jobs, however.

WaMu's former headquarters city is taking the brunt of the 9,200 WaMu layoffs that JPMorgan is making nationwide. It employs about 43,200 people altogether.

This is very, very bad.

To those with the goal of becoming a great gangster, Scarface recommends these steps: "First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women." To those with the goal of entering the global capitalist system, history recommends this be your first step: get some religion.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro attended a ceremony for the country's first religious beatification on Saturday in another sign of warming relations between the Communist-ruled island and the Catholic Church.

Dressed in a dark suit, Castro sat in the first row at the mass conducted with a Vatican envoy for Father Jose Olallo, the first Cuban to receive such honors on the island in its more than 500 years of Catholic history.

After Fidel Castro came to power in an armed revolution in 1959, Cuba expelled priests and Catholics faced decades of official atheism. Ties improved after Cuba guaranteed religious freedom in 1992 and Pope John Paul II visited six years later.

First you get God, then get the market, and then you'll get the money.

We're in one, say the experts, and it started a year ago. Please make a note.

Today: "Jimmy Carter: Cholera-, inflation-ridden Zimbabwe 'a basket case'"
Yesterday: "Zimbabwe is called the breadbasket of Africa..."

CNN reports:

— Cholera-related deaths and new cases continued to spike in recent days in Zimbabwe, where health and sanitation services have been deteriorating amid widespread political turmoil.
A cholera victim is taken by cart to a hospital in Harare.

A cholera victim is taken by cart to a hospital in Harare.

Over the last four days, the number of cholera deaths in the country increased from 294 to 313 and the number of cases has increased from 6,072 to 7,283, the U.N. Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs said on Monday. The numbers have been reported from August till now.

Health officials say the water-borne disease is spreading fast because of the poor sanitation or contaminated water, which Zimbabweans are using for drinking and to prepare food.

Zimbabwe, remember this?

Federal regulators announced late Sunday night that the government had approved a radical plan to stabilize Citigroup in an arrangement in which the government could soak up billions of dollars in losses at the struggling bank. President Bush said on Monday that more such rescues could be arranged if they became necessary.
....
The complex rescue plan calls for the government to back about $306 billion in loans and securities and directly invest about $20 billion in Citigroup. The plan, emerging after a harrowing week in the financial markets, is the government’s third effort in three months to contain the deepening economic crisis and may presage other multibillion-dollar financial rescues.

Nominally, in my posts this would be the time where I make a nicely reasoned discussion of the negatives and positives of the latest action. I can't. I'm apoplectic—consumed with rage beyond rational thought.

Citigroup is eponymous for the sort of financial bullshit that sank all of us—the entire fucking global economy—into what is increasingly likely to be a decade- (or decades-) long period of abject misery. I. Cannot. Even. Start.

In 1998, the formation of Citigroup unilaterally ended the Depression-era Glass-Steagall act. That's right, this fucking financial monstrosity simply decided a cornerstone of American financial regulation shouldn't exist, and acted accordingly.

At a dinner in Washington in February 1998, Sandy Weill of Travelers invites Citicorp's John Reed to his hotel room at the Park Hyatt and proposes a merger. In March, Weill and Reed meet again, and at the end of two days of talks, Reed tells Weill, "Let's do it, partner!"

On April 6, 1998, Weill and Reed announce a $70 billion stock swap merging Travelers (which owned the investment house Salomon Smith Barney) and Citicorp (the parent of Citibank), to create Citigroup Inc., the world's largest financial services company, in what was the biggest corporate merger in history.

The transaction would have to work around regulations in the Glass-Steagall and Bank Holding Company acts governing the industry, which were implemented precisely to prevent this type of company: a combination of insurance underwriting, securities underwriting, and commecial banking. The merger effectively gives regulators and lawmakers three options: end these restrictions, scuttle the deal, or force the merged company to cut back on its consumer offerings by divesting any business that fails to comply with the law.

The lawmakers—led by professional Republican asshole Phil Gramm, triangularization expert Rubin and President Clinton—moved out the way.

It took a decade for the repeal of these protections to crater the economy.

And now they want a bailout. The same fucking management team, the same collection of self-important idiots.

Let me tell you something. I could pick 20 random people off the street, hand them a billion dollars each, and I'd be confident they'd create a better bank than these shitheads. And if these random men and women fucked up, I'm absolutely certain their collective mistakes would total less than $300 billion. Starting a bank, particularly an inept and greedy bank isn't that fucking hard.

In comparison, the shitty management teams running other U.S. companies—the airlines, the auto companies, the energy companies—are pure amateurs at colossal fiascoes. Even the guys who green-lit the AMC Gremlin? Better at their fucking jobs.

Citigroup attempted to cover up their losses—their own epic fuckups—through the government financed purchase of Wachovia. Only Wells Fargo's last minute bid revealed their latest deceptive depravity. The morons at Citigroup couldn't even build a headquarters successfully.

I'm heading home to Detroit in a few days for Thanksgiving, where I will witness firsthand the agonal struggles of your countrymen to feed, clothe, and house themselves—people who have done nothing but work hard, design well, and vote to care for one another. They're, we're, failing—with no bailout in sight.

Citigroup just got theirs.

Apoplectic

Updated:

Nobel Laureate Krugman agrees with me.

And here is what Robert Reich, a former Secretary of Labor, has to say:

If you had any doubt at all about the primacy of Wall Street over Main Street; the utter lack of transparency behind the biggest government giveaway in history to financial executives, and their shareholders, directors, and creditors; and the intimate connections the lie between Administrations — both Republican and Democratic — and the heavyweights on Wall Street, your doubts should be laid to rest.
...
This is not a particularly good deal for American taxpayers, but it is a marvelous deal for Citi.
....
Meanwhile, more than a million workers in the automobile industry, along with six million homeowners in danger of losing their homes, and a millions of Americans who depend on small businesses and retailers for paychecks, are getting nothing at all.

Motherfuckers!

I got panhandled today by a handsome panhandler. A handsome panhandler! And I gave him a dollar. I put it right there in his pan. His panhand. Or whatever. I may have giggled.

I feel weird about this. If he hadn't been handsome, would I have given him a dollar? I don't know. I am a bad person maybe. What IS the appropriate criteria for deciding which panhandlers should get one of my dollars? "Handsomeness" should not make the list—I'm sure of that.

Putting the pirate back into the word piracy.

CNN reports:

More than $150 million have been paid to pirates around the Horn of Africa over the past 12 months, Kenya's foreign minister said Friday.
The supertanker Sirius Star is the biggest vessel seized by pirates this year.

The money is encouraging them to continue and become more brazen in their attacks, Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula told a news conference in the Kenyan capital.

"That is why they are becoming more and more audacious in their activities," Wetangula said.

Some pirate goodies:
Go here to see a Live Piracy Map.

Go here to see a Somali pirate map with skull and crossbones.

Go here to see the eye-popping figure the Somali pirates are demanding for the Saudi super tanker.