Masters of the Universe category archive

Via Bartcop.

I missed it when it happened, because such things usually go down on Friday, so the mess can be cleaned up over the weekend, but yet another bank disappeared, this one on Tuesday:

Central Arizona Bank, Scottsdale, Arizona

Mike reports on the efforts of corporations to steal privatize our public schools.

MarketWatch looks back at last year’s Facebook IPO.

They are not sanguine. A nugget:

In the world of tech IPOs, Facebook’s May 18, 2012, debut was at once the shining Oz of social media investing, and the man behind the curtain.

An IPO that was held up as a symbol of nearly limitless potential and possibility for entrepreneurs also came to show how Wall Street’s relentless temptation to take one more nickel from the table can poison the whole affair.

If you like the true crime genre, read the rest.

Dick Destiny would likely call it one more story from the culture of lickspittle.

Return of Masters of the Universe Meet the FDIC!

Today’s stricken Masters going down before the dreaded regulators include:

Pisgah Community Bank, Asheville, North Carolina

Sunrise Bank, Valdosta, Georgia

Takers, not makers.

George Monbiot explores the reasons why the persons who have everything keep wanting more. For example:

As the immensely rich HL Hunt commented several decades ago: “Money is just a way of keeping score.”

The desire for advancement along this scale appears to be insatiable. In March Forbes magazine published an article about Prince Alwaleed, who, like other Saudi princes, doubtless owes his fortune to nothing more than hard work and enterprise. According to one of the prince’s former employees, the Forbes magazine global rich list “is how he wants the world to judge his success or his stature”.

The result is “a quarter-century of intermittent lobbying, cajoling and threatening when it comes to his net worth listing”.

Welfare for the rich, poverty for the rest of us.

The rich are different from you and me.

The rich get richer, succeed or fail.

You and me, we get rewarded with “miles” we can’t use if we fly.*

Former fashion jewelry saleswoman Rebecca Gonzales and former Chief Executive Officer Ron Johnson have one thing in common: J.C. Penney Co. (JCP) no longer employs either.

The similarity ends there. Johnson, 54, got a compensation package worth 1,795 times the average wage and benefits of a U.S. department store worker when he was hired in November 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Gonzales’s hourly wage was $8.30 that year.

More differences at the link.

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*Some conditions, which make those miles worthless, may apply.

I remember when IRA’s were new. They were touted as a financial boon. It was in the time of high interest rates during the Arab fuel embargo. Million-dollar balances when I and my fellow 20-somethings reached retirement age were projected.

If you put aside umpty-ump dollars today, with company matching, you will have umpty-umpty-umpty-umpty-ump dollars when it’s time to retire.

It hasn’t quite turned out that way, has it?

Kavips explains why. A nugget:

You think? This is Wall $treet we’re talking about……

Read the rest, in which compound interest meets commissions, and commissions win.

If you or someone you know is considering “prepaid” shopping cards, beware the strings:

Prepaid cards are being marketed to the unbanked, the underbanked and quite simply those who don’t like dealing with banks. Wal-Mart stores, for example, recently advertised its Walmart MoneyCard in circulars as a way to “Save on your overdraft fees.” That card has a $3 issuance fee and other fees apply, too.

Some prepaid cards have upfront fees that range from $2.99 to $14.95 to activate the card. But many cards won’t charge such fees if you get the card online. In some cases, you may have to load a minimum of $20 or so to activate the card.

Much more at the link.

Thom debates a Glibertarian.

Banks continue to go “poof!”

Bank no more on

Douglas County Bank, Douglasville, Georgia
Parkway Bank, Lenor, North Carolina

Thom explains “negative externalities.”

Susan Blumner looks over the hedge and view the hogs inside:

Are they (hedge fund managers–ed.) worth it? They certainly think so. But the system is rigged. Even when hedge funds, which are basically big, sparsely regulated pools of investment capital, don’t do any better than market returns, their managers can walk away with the equivalent of a small nation’s GDP.

Take Steven Cohen of SAC Capital Advisors. Cohen’s 2012 pay was $1.4 billion. For this, he obtained a 13 percent return for investors. Sounds good, right? Except that the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index shot up 16 percent last year when factoring in dividends. SAC investors paid a 50 percent performance fee to Cohen despite the lagging numbers.

Having no shame is one of the rules for success as a hedge fund manager.

Read the rest.

The theory that businesses will always do the right thing works out so well in Congressional hearings, does it not?

Almost missed this because of Boston fatigue (escaping TV newsies attempts to invent colorful and creative ways to say “We have no idea what’s going on” was quite tiring): the FDIC offed some banks Friday. These are all gone:

Chipola Community Bank, Marianna, Florida.
Heritage Bank of North Florida, Orange Park, Florida.
First Federal Bank, Lexington, Kentucky.