Former Merrill Lynch Exec takes bailout money to buy palatial digs
By scarce Tuesday Dec 30, 2008 5:00pm
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I don't, as a rule, get surprised by the utter gall of these Wall Street executives, or the complete farce of how these TARP bailout funds are managed but this is a bit much.
Peter Kraus worked hard in the three months he spent at Merrill Lynch this fall — and the $25 million in bonus cash he earned for his troubles was just enough to allow him to afford to buy Carl and Barbaralee Spielvogel's apartment at 720 Park for $36.63 million, twice what they paid for it two years ago.
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the American people -
suckers who loved having it rubbed in their faces.
the Founding Fathers puke.
most of the founding fathers were wealthy white land owners who were trying to get out of paying taxes.
use that meme much? tell me Durden - how much in taxes would it take for you to take up arms?
I'm sure that is what appealed to the Revolutionaries in the trenches and along the lines.
The American revolution is not an exception. If that shatters your fairy tale, I am sorry.
Regarding American history, I have orders of magnitude more respect to those who brought forth civil rights, women's vote, and labor... that a bunch of pasty land owners whose main achievement was to write a constitution with a language so vague that allowed for some very positive side effects later on.
you avoided my question.
btw... it is generally by taxes that the state is able to oppress its people. Financially at first, then by means of force.
If that's your argument, then you'll have a hard time showing that the majority of Americans are being "oppressed", seeing as though most of them pay very little in taxes. The 'effective' tax rate for the majority of Americans is very low for most of their lives. It is only for a brief time in their peak earning years that most Americans pay significant taxes.
Which is how it should be.
Frankly, I'm a bit sick of all the whiny tax protesters. Young soldiers making chump-change are dying while old angry white males bitch because they have to pay capital gains on unearned income.
Suck it up crybabies.
You're quite wrong. In truth the founding fathers weren't wealthy compared to European aristocracy. They had land certainly, but this was a new continent and land was cheap and the Louisianna purchase further devalued their holdings. Washington freed his slaves upon his deathbed but didn't have the money to buy the slaves his wife had inherited and free them as well.
of this sort of thing, before the "bailing out" of the rich is complete. I cannot believe there is absolutely NOBODY going onto the mediatainment shows shouting about this. I can't believe it.
SO, before thay can receive bailout money, they have to nullify these insane contracts. I'm sure it can be done. They sold hundreds of trillions in illegal securities.
the only insane contract right now -
is the current social one.
Well, yeah, there is that, but as they are hell bent on doling out your money...
that this weasel will be living in the lap of luxury while us the taxpayers starve and freeze in the street.
Yes indeed. That's exactly what they want. They want to own EVERYTHING. They want to have each and every one of us under their thumbs. Not that they don't already. They just want to make sure that we know that they are our masters. That they can do whatever the hell that they want and we can just shut the fuck up and go back to our slave labor.
You should all show up on his doorstep and say you want to see what your (grandchildren's) money has bought.
words?
this needs to be a Marcellus Wallace medieval moment.
Personally, I think that mobs of people should be dragging those leaches out into the streets and hanging them from lampposts. It was good enough for Mussolini and Ceausescu.
When the oil companies announced record profits while the price of gas was astronomical, I was amazed that those executives had the gall to appear in public.
I love my overlords. I love giving my money to the rich kings of this country. I am a good little slave, just give me Amerikan Idol please. Come to my home and take it, I do not need it. Thank you mighty overlords for taking all my money. I will continue to sit here and watch my TV. Thanks again.
you are a very patriotic consumer.
good boy.
OH yes, I love buying slave labor toys from Walmart. I love to suck on lead painted toys, it makes parts of my body tingle.
you forgot your melamine-laced dog food and baby food.
at the mailman. No problem.
Ooh, look it's Britney!!!!
siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh...................
It's the American way - I gots mine, fuck all y'all motherfuckers. I gots to get paid up in this bitch. I took a big bite of the American Pie and you can eat shit and die.
God Bless America.
He was supposed to go to work in May. He had a clause in his contract that specified that if the company was sold, he'd get a big bonus. He delays officially starting work until September and a few days later the company is sold. Bwah? Nothing wrong?!!!
He negotiated his salary before the TARP was even agreed to, and obviously before it was ever paid out.
Sure, the guy got a ridiculous sum of money to oversee a a $50B merger negotiation for a few months.
Investment bankers and other such deal makers make retarded sums of money that they aren't possibly worth, but to link this to TARP is kind of ignorant.
But according to all the wailing and gnashing of teeth we heard while TARP was being pushed down our throats, investment banks such as Merrill Lynch were about to go under, bankrupt all of us, and probably cause the world to stop spinning on its axis. Oh, my stars, all those poor employees are going to be on the street corners selling pencils and rummaging in trash cans to feed their children!
Except it turns out that the reason they need the money is to go ahead and pay out $25M bonuses to executives for a few months work. (Doesn't actually shock most of us.)
There's no reason TARP couldn't have come with strings for bank/investment executives - they could have been required to forego the ridiculous salaries and bonuses in order to get their money. Congress didn't have any problem demanding concessions from the Big 3 executives.
Somewhere on the web there is a chart showing how all the members of all the boards of directors of all the major corporations are connected in one grand circlejerk, and choose all the CEOs of all the corporations from among themselves.
Once you are in with the in-crowd you've got it made, and to hell with all the rest of us.
see Mark Lombardi - Invisible connections.
cost him his life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Lombardi
http://www.albany.edu/museum/wwwmuseum/work/l...
Have you noticed the lovely dance they do? Corporate leader to government to lobbyist to corporate leader again.
The master bath looks kind of small, don't you think?
Sounds to me an idiot just blew a shit ton of money on a house that isn't worth 1 million. Now this is after idiot number1, fooled a group of idiots to pay him this.
If this is free market at it's best, I vote for socialism, cap these assholes, time to sacrifice.
By cap these assholes, do you mean put a cap in their asses? I'm down for that.
attached to it ain't worth SHIT. Apartments/condos are just overpriced motel rooms.
and stil have 50 or so extra square feet.
Must be fuckin nice to make $25m in 3 months. Think he'll take it in the shorts when the Park Ave housing bubble bursts?
Funny thing is those toothless red state conservatives will STILL vote for a Republican thinking they are going to look after their best interests.
Where is the congressional and media outrage that was heaped on the auto ceo's.
Look a five year old can see it's a big scam and now body will do anything to stop it. The GOP wants to take as much as possible before they leave and Obama will have a hard time to recover. Right now Bush/Cheney have a debt of almost 12 Trillion dollars and counting. More CEO and Thieves will get as much as possible as did Bernard Madoff who put his money off shore. Robert Toussia put his stolen profit overseas and some corrupt Democrats are hiding behine Obama. Pelosi and Reid got their White House kick back and Diane Feinstein is laying low so maybe people will forget she got her bribe too. This is the first time I've seen the US Govenment laugh in the face of the American people as they openly rob the taxpayers and say SO! Now I love to hear Americans demand Obama fix this mess or he will be impeached. If Obama smoked a cig he would be impeached. Bush killed 1 million Iraq men/woman/children and put the US in a recession but he's hail as one of the grestest Presidents. What does that say about the American people.
I have to say I am very unimpressed by the floor plan and photos. I guess its location location location. Just sayin.
And another thing. This guy just took the money that the Board of Directors gave him. They are the real sons of bitches.
Have to go scream at a welfare mother who might have inadvertently accepted a food stamp she wasn't entitled to...
so you are doing your patriotic duty. Make sure you add extra humiliation, so that the welfare queen remembers her lesson, maybe make a public spectacle or something... do include her children. We wouldn't want a generation of freeloaders to not know who is the boss...
And, be sure to kick her when she's down. Her kids too. And if you can find them slap her parents as well.
And just listen to these 2 clowns eat it up. The 2 news guys think there's nothing wrong with this. And people wonder why this country is so fucked up.
it isn't much but it is home.
You Americans are pathetic losers. You can't even defend yourselves from your own greedy leeches.
for doing so is...?
Make some honourable rules that have teeth, and then abide by them. Stop worshiping the almighty dollar and the power that it wields as the be all to end all. Just follow the intents of your Founding Fathers, who were truly wise men.
That's just a start off the top of my head. Why do you have to ask me? Aren't you capable of figuring it out for yourselves?
How's the Canadian economy right now?
Did they suspend your Parliament yet?
Are you still up to yer arse in Conservatives?
Are you trying to start a flame war here?
If so, do it somewhere else.
Just so you know, you're not the first one from Canada to pitch a bitch aboot us.
In fact, the Canadian economy is struggling, but it isn't being hollowed out. We will hurt up here, as will many around the world. We are not perfect by any means, but we have not let greed run our show to the extent you have.
Our Conservatives are just as much scumbags as yours, but they can't achieve a majority. I trust Canadian voters to prevent that.
Also, I'm an American citizen and voted in the last election. Don't jump to conclusions about my motives for posting. It grieves me to see what's become of my home country.
You started off your rant with:
Then you say you are one of the pathetic losers.
I suppose it is all part of being a relatively free country.
You sir have the post of the day!!!!!!!
I just paid my rent tonight. Now if I used the amount of my rent, multiplied by twelve, divided by the cost of this pile of craps apartment it would take me 5,964 years to pay it off. I may be off by a few decades.
I just don't get how this place is worth anything like 35 mil. Even if I had a Billion $$ I don't think I could bring myself to get ripped off this badly.
It doesn't look very "homey" either. My house may not be much but it sure feels like a home.
It's location, location location!!!! He can live amongst people just like him. He can get on the elevator at the end of a hard days work ripping off hard working americans and not have to feel any of the nasty guilt he might otherwise get from living amongst the rabble. Then he can go to cocktail parties with the rest of the thieves right in the neighborhood and dream up new ways to rip us all off. Very efficient.
:)
What's up with the Amos and Andy statues in the hallway? Judas Priest, it used to be blacks as hitching posts, now there are blacks in the foyer? What kind of a mixed up fuck would go along with that?
God forgive me but I love this stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCwVW_lOdkM
If... This is the same guy below, I wouldn't say he has done nothing wrong with absolute surety.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3072/i...
Snip - When Robert F. Greenhill, the former president of Morgan Stanley Group and founder of Morgan Stanley's mergers-and-acquisitions department, founded Greenhill & Co. in 1996, Krause saw a career move taking shape.
"I was the second partner in the door after Bob," Krause said. "We've since done
mergers and acquisitions all over the world."His wife, Alice, a former v.p. at
Chase Manhattan BankSee > Chase is the consumer and commercial banking division of JPMorgan Chase. The bank was known as Chase Manhattan Bank until it merged with JPMorgan in 2000.I thought the guy in the video mentioned Goldman not Morgan?
Snip - Outside lodging, Krause and his colleagues also recently closed transactions in the multifamily housing (Berkshire) and office/industrial (TriNet Leasing and Starwood Financial)
"Berkshire Hathaway to Invest $5 Billion in Goldman Sachs"
http://www2.goldmansachs.com/our-firm/press/p...
It's not who ya know, It is who ya know and what you know! Just study the banks and look at the players...Amended: Sounds like he had a little help from his friends? "On September 5, 2008 Goldman Sachs downgraded Merrill Lynch's stock to "conviction sell" and warned of further losses from the company.[20] Bloomberg reported in September 2008 that Merrill Lynch had lost $51.8 billion in mortgage-backed securities as part of the subprime mortgage crisis"
I'd look into who approved his contract.? "Andrew Cuomo, New York Attorney General, threatened to sue Merrill Lynch in August 2008, over their misrepresentation of the risk on mortgage-back securities." "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merrill_Lynch
So this incompetent assclown gets 25 mil bonus money as a reward for having the worst year in decades? And from the taxpayers to boot! WTF? They way I learned it was that you got bonus money for exceptional performance. Since when is losing your ass and driving your company to the brink of bankruptcy exceptional performance?
These greedy bastards have substituted entitlement for pay for performance to insulate themselves from the real world. And their flaccid rubber stamp boards go right along enabling this utter failure of leadership. That these craven King Midases have the balls to ask for any bonus is absolute proof of their arrogance and utter incompetence.
Small wonder Wall Street melted down with the cancer of greed and avarice that compromises their culture. But I guess that happens when Gordon Gekko is your role model.
I've worked since high school primarily in retail. The money I earn isn't enough to afford even a efficiency apartment, and my other living expenses such as food, clothing, and transportation (public transportation). Conservatives that I have had the displeasure of talking with like to tell me that I chose this life, and that it is entirely my fault.
The gross disparity in quality of life between the working poor, and the wealthy is sickening. Those of us who work behind a counter at the register, or in the kitchens, in the warehouses, and in the fields are the real workers in America. The corporate executives, share holders, bankers, stock brokers, and Wall Street investors are parasites of America who make their wealth on the working poor's hard work.
The capitalist excuses for increasing poverty, and the consolidation of wealth in the hands of a few is criminal. That our elected representatives at the local, state, and federal levels support this inequity in America, and worldwide is also criminal. Maybe it's not criminal in the eyes of politicians, corporations, and the wealthy. However that doesn't change the criminal nature of the inequities between the haves and have nots.
Conservative, and capitalists alike call any attempt to create a living wage requirement "Class warfare, socialism, redistribution of wealth, and jealousy". The reality is that the wealthy are waging class warfare upon the working poor with low wages, unaffordable food, healthcare, and housing. Redistribution wealth from the workers to the wealthy by the same means. Jealousy by the wealthy towards the middle class, and poor because the wealthy desire what little we have so they can add more to their excess. The bailout of the banks, corporations, and Wall Street is reverse socialism.
O'Riley, Limpballs, and people like them say it's human nature to be greedy, and that if anyone of us among the working poor had chance to live as the wealthy do that we would. They're so far from the truth, and they know it. Most of us among the working poor, myself included, don't dream of being wealthy. We dream of our basic needs being met, having a small home of our own, and to retire when we are old. What makes us so undeserving of affordable food, healthcare, and housing? Most of us work far harder than the executives of the corporations we work for.
After these eight painful years with Bush in office are over, if the Democrats continue to refuse to help the poor and middle class, if they continue to be Republican-lite, then we will find political voices to replace them along with replacing the Republicans.
that make me think there's a new business opportunity for someone out there: honest banking and investing! No frills and no big bonuses for employees! Everything but salaries goes back to the investor. AND..a new political party; one which is not corrupt or tied to corporate America. How long would it take the establishment to find problems with this? About as long as it takes to say Happy New Year!
Not perfect, but they are an improvement over BofAWAMURegionsBankAtlanticCorp.
Four locations in the county, and I have to say, the greed and incompetence was just as prevalent there as in any of the huge corporate banks, which I've also had the pleasure of working for. What's sad is that they weren't even good at being greedy. They were terrible business people, who pretty much inherited their positions and investments at the bank, and had no friggen idea what they were doing. These are the people, aside from Silicon Valley, who are running our country now: Asshats who inherited their wealth from there hardworking parents, and are now squandering it. They use this wealth and status to infect all the major corporate boards and executive management, and then proceed to run the companies into the ground while they search for the quickest and biggest buck.
America: Home of the free (to work for established wealth), Land of the Brave (enough to take a lifetime of being told your not as good as the feet you kneel at). If your lucky, you have a small business that's niche enough to make a killing for a bit, then it gets bought up by some big money. If I'm not in video games by the end of the year, I have a few business ideas based around the idea of energy efficiency, ect. If that fails, well o well, I did the best I could, right?
They can take your money, but they can't take your dreams!
When I was a kid, I had a friend whose father was a department store clerk. This was a one-income family. The friend's sibling was handicapped, so the mother didn't work and instead stayed home to care for her child. On that father's income, this family was able to afford adequate healthcare and to go from renting to building their own home.
That was the '60s and '70s. I didn't think things were all that great then, as far as personal income and rising above your situation. But it's a helluva lot worse now. I can't believe that someone in Washington doesn't look at this worsening, widening situation through the long-view of history and politics and get the crap scared out of them because of the coming storm.
A couple of related thoughts. People didn't used to be as mean-minded as they are now. They didn't think that a person who works in such-and-such a job doesn't deserve to have a home, a car, etc. This kind of thinking comes all too easily now to a lot of people in America.
Finally, we have laws that regulate the bottom limit of a working person's wages. Isn't it time to start regulating the upper limit?
$25 million for 3 months' worth of work???? I wonder how much money this guy actually brought into Merrill Lynch? I wonder how much he actually lost for investors?
No wonder the economy is so screwed up....and you have idiots like Limbaugh and his fill-in yesterday, Jason Lewis, wanting the UAW busted.
If ya think about it...that's OUR fuckin mansion!
it wasn't paying taxes they were against, it was taxation without representation. If the Brits had given the colonists a voice in their government, there night not even have been a revolution.
Lehman Brothers acquisition
On September 16, 2008, Barclays announced its agreement to purchase, subject to regulatory approval, the investment-banking and trading divisions of Lehman Brothers,
Student's £100bn overdraft shock
Snip - Donald Moffat, 38, from Irvine, said that on Tuesday morning his Barclays account was showing two separate withdrawals of £50bn.
The bank said a "technical error" was to blame and apologised.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/g...
Banks set to agree £50bn package, Tuesday, 7 October 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/co...
"Even Barclays, hitherto fiercely resistant to the idea that it needs more capital having only recently committed itself to a dividend increase, seems to have dropped its objections and is prepared to be supportive."
That's all you get for $36 million?
That guy got FUCKED.
And that gallery is butt ugly!!
Burn it to the ground.
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