Sunday, August 14, 2011

Obama meets with CEO's for a plunder session

I can't help re-using this, it's classic
Hold up! Wait a minute! Don’t panic, all is well. Those who don’t usually read it should go get this weekend’s edition of the Wall Street Journal. There’s a report in there under the US News section that will cause you to jump with joy and thank your lucky stars you live in the US-------God bless America.

President Obama “sat down” with Executives at the White House Friday to find out “what he could do to boost their confidence.” the Journal reports, “White House officials were listening to the CEO’s and not telling them what to do.”, the paper adds.
(Myadded emphasis).

We can rest assured these heroic figures will have our best interests at heart especially as Obama had other government figures of great integrity present like Chief of Staff Bill Daley a scion of the famous Daley family. I think I bumped in to him at mass once; he’s a saint.

Anyway, President Obama “declined to say what he took away from the session” the WSJ tells us but “one person” in attendance who shall remain unnamed did reveal some details.

Let’s see, what happened in there. Oh yes, at the top of the list was overregulation the Execs say because it “inhibits job creation”. What wonderful little buggers these guys are being so concerned that we have well paid jobs and a secure and productive work life. After all, society needs things and it’s our job to produce them. Oh, the guy did mention that overregulation also inhibits “business growth” which is the same thing as job creation isn’t it? I mean, they are in business just to create jobs for the rest of us aren’t they? That’s their vocation in life, to do good for others.

Another suggestion from the Execs is that “the administration changes its tone when speaking about business.” they don’t want any more of that “greedy banker” rhetoric even if Obama doesn’t mean it; the mood out there is already too volatile and we all know the economic crisis was caused by workers who simply live beyond our means.  And just listen to the little dears; another way Obama can aid hiring is to, “reduce the taxes on selling a home so it would be easier for people to move for jobs.” Damn, why didn't I think of that?  What kindness, thinking only of others rather than themselves. Now when you get laid off and can’t find a job in your neighborhood that pays enough for you to pay the rent or interest on your mortgage, you will be able to sell the place much quicker to Larry Fink’s hedge fund partners (Fink was present) and head on down to Georgia or South Carolina to the new poultry plant down there. You’ll have no problem getting work because they are on the way to kicking out of the country all the illegal people who stole these jobs from us.

Hmmm, there’s more. Oooh! This is a big one. They have to reapply for research and development tax credits each year which is a bit of a bummer and would much rather just have them as permanent. Having to reapply every year could “inhibit innovation” one CEO said. We must have innovation, there was lots of innovation leading up to the financial collapse, different types of loans and what they call “financial instruments” .

Well let’s see who we have looking after our interests in this White House meeting , other than Obama and his staff like Bill Daley.

Larry Fink
Larry is CEO of BlackRock which is the world's largest asset management company. It has more than $3.5 trillion in assets. We can rely on Larry, his compensation was $22 million in 2010 and earned every penny of it. You should see his overtime hours. Plus, he lives like us, takes the train to his 26 acre estate and flies commercial airlines, probably in that section where they draw the curtain when the plane takes off. Larry’s son Joshua is also in he same coupon clipping type business thieving throughout the world in far away places like Ethiopia, “I’m not Indiana Jones. I just love the sense of finding the unknown in off-beat places, of uncovering a stone and finding value and seizing a huge opportunity.” Josh tell Forbes Magazine. Josh is just like his old dad. Those Ethiopians should be grateful they have man like Josh Fink looking after their interests.

Kenneth Chenault

Ken is the Chairman of American Express and is one of three black folks in the group so my black brothers and sisters at work and the young black folks in the schools and the street can rest assured, with Obama and Ken and Ursula Burns, the Xerox CEO in there, you have a voice. According to Wikipedia, in 2007, “Chenault earned a total compensation of $50,126,585, and in 2008, he earned a total compensation of $42,752,461.In 2009, he earned a total compensation of $16,617,639” Wow, almost $110 million in three years, go ken.

John Stumpf
John Stumpf is Chairman of Wells Fargo and feels very bad they have to kick all of these poor folks out of their homes due to the financial mess they got themselves in. In 2010, Stumpf's total compensation was almost $19 million according to Forbes.

Ursula Burns
Ursula Burns is the first black woman to head a Fortune 500 company as head of Xerox. She is described as a Panamanian immigrant and a billionaire by Forbes Magazine. The women working in the poultry plants and hog farms of the South  have a friend fighting for them.

Richard K Davis
Dick is CEO of Bancorp and one of the young turks in his 50’s. He is a lightweight with his total compensation over the last 5 years at a mere $25 million. He has a lot to learn yet the scrappy little devil.

John Surma
John is CEO of US Steel. His total compensation for 2008 was $11,130,689. I am having a hard time writing at the moment due to the tears of emotion I have for this man and his sacrifice for humanity.  He “requested “ a 20% salary reduction and 60% compensation reduction in 2009 “citing the difficult business environment.”

Bill Weldon
Bill is the CEO of Johnson and Johnson and, “continues to be one of the longest-tenured and most well-respected CEOs in the healthcare industry” according to Forbes. Bill earned almost $29 million in 2010.

Glenn Hutchins
Glenn is last of the bunch and maybe the  poorest so most likely the strongest champion of workers’ rights. Glenn was 1,467th on the Forbes Global 2000 in 2010 and still struggling. Glenn is part owner of the Boston Celtics and co-founder of Silver lake, a $13 billion private equity firm.

Many of these folks sit on the same boards either at the same time or on different occasions. They are connected through boards like JP Morgan, the National Association of Manufacturers and other capitalist clubs and organizations. They are part of the unelected minority that run US society and when banded together, the world. Forbes will often describe them as “self made” a euphemistic term for someone who accumulates vast sums of money without working but living off the Labor of those that do. For the uninitiated, you will find the National Association of Manufacturers in Labor history books as it is an old club and one that has been a consistent enemy of American workers. The famed Auguste Belmont who had a horse race named after him was a former official.

So there we have it. A gang of thieves and their political representatives meeting at the White House to chat about how best to govern society in their interests. The total value of damage done in one week of anger and rioting in London does not come close to the destruction these people inflict on humanity and the natural world. They are violence personified.

Society needs new managers.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley is not a "former mayor of Chicago". His brother Richard M. Daley and his father Richard P. Daley were mayors of Chicago, but he never was; he was the Daley family's corporate insider, as a lawyer, bank executive and member of numerous corporate boards.

Richard Mellor said...

you're correct, thanks for the heads up.