Anger Management Needed

I continue to read the news and continue to get pissed off everytime I read it. Mainly it has to do with the bailouts and the economy and the state of the country. I'm no political analyst or economic genius, but can someone please explain to me why the banks/investment firms keep getting money from the government with no accountability (and I mean no accountability), but the government is giving the auto companies that employ way more people a super hard time about getting money? I'm pretty sure the big 3 aren't failing due to majorly bad decisions in their business model. I'm sure there are a few but not on the scale of the banks.

I read that people were asking the banks what they did with the money and either a) they didn't know or b) refused to tell. Excuse me, but if you're receiving money--especially taxpayer money--you need to account for every single penny and tell us how it was spent, by whom and how it's being paid back. I don't want to hear that we helped bail out B of A and then their CEO spent $1 million to redecorate his office after he asked for money to help out the company. I also don't want to hear that the company needs more money just to buy another company. If you don't have to money to buy it on your own, you don't buy. Save up money and then buy it when you have the cash. Sounds like they need some lessons in economics 101.

This is another thing that bugs me. You hear how the state of the economy is dire. That people are losing their jobs left and right and the spending is so low right now. Well, if people don't have jobs to make money, they're not going to be spending money which makes the spending even less which causes companies to lay off more people. Vicious circle this is. However, when you read that Pfizer laid off 8,000 people but then spent billions, billions, of dollars to buy Wyeth, it's a bit disheartening. How can you tell all these people that we can't afford to keep you and then spend that kind of money to buy another company. What is wrong with these companies?

Another thing is that 9 out of the 10 banks that received government money still have the same CEOs in place. Well, apparently they sucked at their jobs if they managed to run the company into the red enough to ask for a government handout. If it were you, me or some schmoe off the street and did this, we'd be fired in a heartbeat. But these guys not only don't get fired, they continue to receive bonuses and we're not talking a little somethin'-somethin' on the side. These are 7 and 8-figure bonuses, for being incompetent. Don't screw up on a little scale, that would get you fired. Screw up on a massive scale and you can keep your job and continue to get promoted. Yeah. That's a good message for today's youth.

I think I need therapy at life.sa.laugh@hotmail.com.

I am constantly amazed at the way this country and the justice system works. We have our own mini-Madoff case going on down here with some real estate broker taking a bunch of money from investors and not delivering on the promises. He's currently on trial for stealing a bunch of money. Unfortunately, I, and many others, believe that even if convicted there won't be much done in the way of punishment. Why you ask? Because he's married to a local news anchorwoman and her father has boatloads of cash.

This is what gets me. If you or I or some schmoe off the street stole $20 from someone, we'd be in jail faster than you can say "plea bargin" but if you steal millions of dollars, well then it's a long drawn out process with the defendent most likely getting a slap on the wrist. Just look at that Madoff guy who stole billions, billions (as in starting with a "b"), and he's still not in jail. People have committed suicide because they lost their life savings because of this guy and he's still not in jail. What is wrong with this picture? A lot I think.

I'm just sayin at life.sa.laugh@hotmail.com.

They put the BS in BCS

The national championship game has been played and, unfortunately, the Florida Gators have been crowned. They played well against the Oklahoma Sooners and the game was a good one. However, this whole BCS crap needs some serious overhauling.

As you know, I've never been a big fan of the BCS because it just doesn't make sense to me. I think you need some sort of doctorate in astrophysics and aeronautical engineering to figure out between strength of schedule and quality wins how they come up with who ends up at the top of the list. I say that this year in college football has all but cemented the reasoning behind needing a playoff system.

At the end of all the bowl games you end up with three one-loss teams and one no-loss team. The undefeated team, Utah, got totally hosed in the fact that they beat--quite soundly--an Alabama team that had been No. 1 in the polls but ended up falling to UF in the SEC Championship game. The argument being that they belong to the Mountain West Conference (or whatever it is) and thus, do not have a hard schedule or teams where they can gain quality wins. I'd say the same could be said for the Pac-10 and no one is saying that USC shouldn't be given a shot, but maybe that's just me.

Then there was the whole six degrees of winning in the Big 12. Oklahoma ended up number 1 in the polls after losing to Texas who lost to Texas Tech who lost to Oklahoma. I know, crazy huh? Texas gave a good game against Ohio State, but that's not exactly a good argument considering how bad the Big Ten has become. Oh well. And don't get me started on how unfair it was for Texas Tech to not even get into the Big 12 championship or a BCS game because of the BCS BS rules about more than two teams from a conference, etc. What about Notre Dame who have sucked for a long time but still get in? Huh, what about them? Make them join a conference!

This whole thing is just wrong on so many levels. Kids and teams get screwed because of the politics and campaigning of other schools. Bleh, let them play and then see who's left standing after the dust settles.

Suck on that AP poll at life.sa.laugh@hotmail.com.

WTF 2009 Update

So we've all seen the news about the bailouts of the finanical sector of the county. This was pushed through the Senate and Congress because it was absolutely vital to saving the economy. At least that's what they told us taxpayers to justify using our money to save these companies. If this is the case, WTF? I read this and thought, REALLY? For SERIOUS? If you, me or any other Joe-schmoe tried this even with our household budget, we'd be up a creek. But apparently you can do this with billions, billions, of money that doesn't belong to you. Also, you can be totally rewarded for being completely incompetent. 'Tis the American dream right?

What is wrong with this picture? I was always taught that if you did a good job, you should be rewarded. If you did a poor job, there would be some sort of negative reinforcement. I'm no economics genius (having only taken one economics class in high school) but I'm pretty sure if you sucked so much at your job that you needed a government bailout, you should probably be fired, not get tens of millions of dollars in bonuses. Now all us hard-working, non-criminal types will have to pay for this mess. And we'll keep paying for stuff like this until it gets fixed. My suggestion? I say we clean out all these big financial companies, find out who they lobbied to get all this help and get rid of them because they obviously didn't think this through as there were little to no oversight or regulation on how this money was to be spent. Ridiculous!!!

Is it just me? at life.sa.laugh@hotmail.com.