Despite a bad year, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan got a 600% raise
By louisehartmann
Most CEOs who watch their corporation’s stock value drop in half get fired, or at the very least take a pay cut. But not if you’re a bankster. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan was given a big fat check for $7.5 million in 2011 – a 600% increase from the year before – despite the fact that Bank of America’s stock dropped 58% over the year.
Not to mention – Bank of America had to pay out $335 million in a settlement against charges that it discriminated against minority homeowners – and is currently hard at work blocking mortgage aid for its customers. All the things that would get a guy fired on Main Street – is just business as usual on Wall Street…and even gets banksters a raise.
Comments
#2
Yet another reason to pull your money out of big banks and put it into local banks, or even better, into a local credit union!
#3
Does anyone have more information on the Custodian Unions' march tomorrow in Chicago? I know he said the website but I was not in a place I could write it down. Thanks!
#4
The deserve many years in prison!
#5
The banksters are going to be laughing all the way to their banks no matter whether Republicans or Democrats are in power because even Democrats (not all) are puppets for these Corporate Welfare Queens (Kings?) .
Obama has shown just who he is not, in the last 3 years, and he is certainly not anything like the image he painted for us when he campaigned the first time. Just the very fact that he has not sided with those truth-telling whistle-blowers who have shown the world the war crimes and corruption that has run rampant in our "institutions" including failing to investigate the very undeniable lies and war crimes....and I'd venture to say "treason" of the Bush Administration...tells me that Obama will certainly not suddenly change for the next four years.
I'm sure Obama will be re-elected and I am very likely to vote for him, myself... but only because I wouldn't want a damn Republican in office. I suffer from no illusions, unlike some, that Obama will be different, in his next term, than a Republican. But voting for Obama would be a symbol, and a vote against the Republicans...even if it also is also a symbol, to the ruling elilte...the banksters..Wall Street, Corporations anyway, of my apparent gullibility as shown by my willingness to even continue their charade of democracy.
There is no way to hope for real change by voting in Democrats...even if every last politician..the President or all of Congress were Democrats...the ruling elite would still have us all begging for crumbs or a decent healthcare system..because the system has been rigged so that money controls the elections. And when money controls the elections, even the Democrats are hooked into pandering to those with all the money. The Democrats (not all) are just as bought off as the Republicans are...but the Republicans are more open about their convictions, as detesting as they are...they have an advantage that the Democrats don't have. They are not selling out their convictions or pretensions and no matter how ridiculous they sound....they are performing exactly the way their base wants them to perform. They are in alignment with their base way more than the Democrats are with their base. Obama, and many Democrats, have sold out their base showing them the lying hypocrites that they are.
If the Obama administration had just, at least, struggled for a public option, at least, and even if he had lost Obamacare, he may have won back at least some of his supporters. But Obama has, over and over, sold out his base to please the ruling elite and their Republican puppets.
Now, if Obamacare fails entirely, and he doesn't throw into the ring a single payer system..or medicare/medicaid for all then I don't think Obama will have many overly enthusiastic supporters this time around.
I am, obviously, not an enthusiastic supporter. I know when I have been played for a sucker...because I believed in what Obama said he stood for and voted for him on that basis. But now, I may, or may not, vote for Obama again. And if I do, it will only be because he has done something so great, like single payer system, or because I just want to blacken the Republican eyes some more with another Obama Presidency.
Can you imagine four more years of the same kind of display of childish, foot-stomping, racist idiocy that the Republicans displayed the last 3 years. Our comedians (like Bill Maher) needs more fodder for chuckles with yet another cry-baby Republican set-back. But again, it wouldn't be a set-back for the ruling elite because they own both parties. They will get everything they want and we will lose everything that we need no matter who is elected.
So go ahead and vote for Obama for the pure enjoyment of ticking off the Republicans...but don't think it is going to change things in your favor. Obama will continue to play the same game as he has for the last 3 years.
It is unfortunate but, there will be no real change until there is a revolution, or at least an indisputable verge of a revolution that scares the crap out of the ruling elite. If they think that the masses will overwhelm the system the ruling elite has set up, and all their ill-gotten wealth and property will be taken away from them...or even if their very lives are at stake...they will stop oppressing us. You think it is quaint, that all these Arabic nations are overthrowing their ruling elite and you may even think...good for them...it's about time? Well, it's time you start believing that we may have to go through the same thing in order to rein in our ruling elite. Oh, but that would be so messy. Damn right it would. But do you really want to continue to live under the domination of oppression? Your children?
Maybe our "ABC Society" is already in formation in the incipient form of Occupy Wall Street. We have already seen the Javertian toadies spraying tear gas and banging heads at peaceful demonstrations. It always culminates in rebellion in one form or another or nothing gets changed. The rich and powerful will always exploit and take advantage of those not willing to rise up and fight back...especially when the rich and powerful have rigged the only peaceful means of equality, democracy through the ballot box. Voting no longer works and is merely a smoke-and-mirrors, shuffle the pea under the pod, distraction.
#6
in a dr. evil bankster kind of way the board members are loving the ceo. because he has artificially driven down the stock which mr and ms normal want to sell, sssooooo dr. evil share holder now buys up mr and ms normal's shares at the reduced rate. ttttthhhhhheeeennn just act out a few sound buisness policies and the value will shoot up instantly.
That's how a bankster EARNS 7.5 million this year.
#7
Quote Palindromedary:I'm sure Obama will be re-elected and I am very likely to vote for him, myself... but only because I wouldn't want a damn Republican in office.Thanks for bringing that up! Yesterday Norman Goldman made me mad once more. He keeps telling, the terms liberal, progressive and conservative wouldn't mean anything. Again : Liberal comes from 1600s/ early 1700s French, it still means exactly the same in our American Webster's, like in dictionaries 300 years ago! I already unfollowed Goldman weeks ago, for he didn't respond to that point. Now I'm going to cut his babbling out, for it's a disgrace for liberals. You can't easily insult me, but this I consider an insult. That guy is just stubborn in this matter, but doesn't make sense (although otherwise he makes plenty of sense).
Norman yesterday added (and here comes your point Palindromedary) : to him the terms Republican and Democratic would say something. And here he's wrong again and your critic is actually right, Palindromedary: We have serious problems with appointed blue-dog candidates as well. But to what extend is President Obama a blue-dog? I don't know... maybe even I have one or two tiny blue-dog-blood-drops in my veins.... Whatever, liberal is precisely defined and has a clearly positive meaning. Whereas a member of the Democratic Party can be an asocial heel as well. Anybody wanna learn what liberal means? Just click my avatar and go to the stuff under my profile -- here on Thom Hartmann's homepage.....
The other day we had that Texan attorney here, who felt like it was dangerous to have the trained killers of our armed forces at home right now. Shipping them to the kangaroos didn't make sense and this was the reason why I felt, lefties where trashing him to quick for that. Because now it does make sense, in case that attorney should be right.
How much does our President hate being dependent on corporate money? I don't know, but I heard even Newt Gingrich talking about he wouldn't like that as Congressman. Because it sucks, if all the time you have to be after the money and find people who finance your work. So why should our President like being dependent on corporate money?
I like President Obama and I think he is honest.
Quote Palindromedary:There is no way to hope for real change by voting in Democrats...I have plenty of hope, because the GOP is so extremely paranoid these days. They scare their voters away and this might get ourselves the most progressive Congress we've ever seen in our lifetime! This is a chance to really change the country gravely and bring it on a progressive path. A liberal/ progressive/ Keynesian dominated Congress would cut the president office's power radically down -- and really ought to. Even if Mitt Romney was the president, instead of Barack Obama, he wouldn't be able to attack Iran. No, as I feel, the first thing they would vote on would be, taking away his right to decide on war and peace. Only Congress is supposed to decide that!
What else would Congress do? I tell you, Wall Street would be severely scared..... Congress can arrest anybody and I like that! They make the laws for what crime we go to prison and I like that! Right now it doesn't work, because of all those goofy Republicans and blug-dogs. That is our problem, not the president. Even Adolph Hitler couldn't rule against a 100% liberal United States Congress -- it wouldn't work. He would just bawl about the house, but it wouldn't help him.
What else would a progressive Congress do? Supreme Court would change -- I thought that over : why not let the American people vote judges in -- every other midterm election? Just add another column to the midterm ballot. That would mean, they stay in office for 8 years at the most.
There's your kind of American dream, Palindromedary. If it won't come true at all, cuz I am overestimating the intelligence of the average American voter, we can still be depressed in November and bury ourselves in music and be happy again. But why give up now, while Romney's insanity gives so much hope?
#8
People who don't like the tag LIBERAL : what's wrong with them? Do they secretly hate being kind and generous? I don't really think Norman Goldman does hate that. But what's wrong with him? Doesn't he have a dictionary, to clearly define LIBERAL?? I tell ya folks, you easily can. It's even clearer than mountain water! Just click my avatar and look up the stuff under my profile. Everything's there -- just my stuff on Thom's homepage....
Good grief, how would we fight those Wall Street gangsters, if we hate our own liberal guts?!
#9
Here is something to ponder over,we humans have fallen so far into DUALITY thinking . For insistence our penchant for ,our insistence upon,comparisons,and our constant need to characterize something as better or worse higher or lower good or bad demonstrates how far into DUALITY we have fallen;who deeply into separatism we have submerged.
In highly evolved civilizations the level of a society,s advancement is reflected inevitably ,in the degree of its duality thinking.Social EVOLUTION IS DEMONSTRATED BY MOVEMENT TOWARDS UNITY,NOT SEPARATISM.
Unity is the truth.Separatism is the illusion.As long as society sees itself as separate-a series or collection of separate units-it lives in the illusion.
All of life on our planet is built on separatism;based on duality.
Humanity is so in denial of who we are and what we are doing here so caught up in the illusion that we cant even see past it look at the way we are treating our planet using all its natural resources,in the last 40 years we have used more resources than the last 40 000 years look at the abuse of our children in many of our homes ,why can we not see this?we do see this but we do not believe it .
We are so caught up in the illusion so deep we go ,and we must for the illusion to continue,this is the DIVINE DICHOTOMY.
We must deny our divinity if we are continuing to become divine,but we cannot become what we already.
Acceptance is for those who choose for the illusion to end.
We are one with each other and one with god ,that is the problem here ,that nothing is good enough and we where born imperfect we even have insane religions that tell us we are all sinners at birth,do you have any idea how this single thought perpetrated by organized religion effects our planet .
People with low self esteem rob others of theirs,people who do not love themselves cannot love others.People who see themselves as unworthy see others as unworthy .The key message of organized religion is not joy,innocence,and self celebration,but fear,guilt,and self-denial and these are the people that we trust with the future of our planet.
People its time to take back our future NOW ,responsible evolving humans could choose to do this and we all have a part to play because its not working what we are doing here ,and it can never work.
The banksters are only following their beliefs ,beliefs create behaviors ,what we could do with is a set of new beliefs to turn the world right side up,over at The global conversation.com this is exactly what we are doing.
namaste everyone.
#10
600% raise?.... It's called "winning ugly," no dignity, only bloated shame! What do 1%er's like him deserve? The very least, a pre Reagan tax rate, it's the only chance, for now anyway, to recycle the loot back into the society that created it, and where it can do some good....... authentic trickle down.
#11
They deserve a sample of what they are doing to their customers, or should I say victims. Then they deserve a nice, long jail term.
#12
Well, Clarissa Smith, I do sincerely HOPE that your hope is not in vain. I am routing for your hope. I guess if the people were bright enough, all the money in China couldn't BUY the elections. In fact, one time in our history, we (that is those in power in the US at the time) had all the money in China when MacArthur had Yamashita's driver tortured and the US recovered much of the stolen southeast asian gold and jewels the Japanese stole prior to and during WWII.* But as Forest Gump would say..."stupid is as stupid does". And stupid has let a few cunning people rob them out of house and home.
We need to smarten up and use every tactic we can to gain back our dignity and our very lives. It really is a life or death ordeal for many of us...just ask the hundreds of thousands who are dying of treatable diseases but who can't afford the exorbitant healthScare insurance premiums (and even then these "insurance" companies try to cheat us out of their obligations to pay).
We can keep doing the same useless things, or look back into our history and see what worked and what didn't. Voting seems to work ok for a while until the cunning rig things their way...after all, most did not amass all their wealth and power by playing fair. And it has only been the violence, or threat of violence, against the oppressors that has ever really made any difference.
FDR may get a lot of credit for improving the lives of most Americans but he would never have been able to do it had the nation not gotten close to revolution. Massive strikes, boycotts, protests, Woodie Guthrie's songs, and the threat of Communism were all needed for FDR to have the teeth to bite into the financial criminals of the times. So, yes, we have to vote Obama and for as many non-blue-dog Democrats into Congress as we can get...but it is going to take a lot more than that when the system is controlled by big money and politicians, of all stripes, are dangling from the casino capitalist's marionette strings.
I also like Obama a great deal...except I feel embarrassed for him and the rest of us who voted for him because he, for whatever reason, is not playing the part of President that most of us had hoped for. And that is a very big reason why HOPE is such a wimpy word. I HOPE I win the lottery. I HOPE I, and my loved ones, live forever. I HOPE that people would stop killing and harming other people. I HOPE that people would stop stealing from those who can least afford to be stolen from. It's ok to HOPE but that just doesn't work.
* I suspect that those in power during the 30s knew quite well that Japan had been looting, hording, and during WWII burying the Golden Lily treasure in the Philippines and that they knew that going to war against Japan, and winning, would make it possible for the US to grab a lot of that wealth. The US certainly did not return any of it back to China or any of the other Asian countries it was originally stolen from. Japan, after the war and the US became partners in crimes sharing in the booty stolen from Japan's western neighbors.
http://mydd.com/users/indepenergy/posts/golden-lily-how-the-cia-funded-i...
#13
Hitler was only following his "beliefs" too, huh! Yeah, like we need yet another Rajneesh to set us all straight, eh? Neale Donald Walsch...just another guy who thinks he finds God in the midst of life's turmoil who then tries to sell (literally..his books, etc) ideas to everyone else. He may have some good ideas, which aren't new, but he lost me at ...God. I am not into superstition. Superstition never solves real problems..although it may fool some people some of the time. Another "cult" in the making? Probably...what the heck, why not? All those other major religions were cults at one time too.
#14
Hitler wasn't different from those of our 'fellow'-Americans who are the worst racists in our country. You actually find monsters like this in ANY country. But a guy like this wouldn't be successful here in the States. The German majority around 1930 really HATED democracy. It hadn't been their choice to give up their Kaiser Wilhelm after WW1 -- we, the free democratic world had forced them to become a democracy. Plus the Germans had to pay a much too high sum for having lost WW1. They were so desperate and angry, that the insanely raving Hitler was their ideal leader. It was extremely popular to blame the Jews for having lost WW1 as for the depression as well. There you have all the reasons why Germany went crazy -- actually paranoid. Hitler was the paranoid leader who absolutely matched that paranoid nation. They were yearning for a tough leader who was ready to go after their "enemies" -- the Jews in the country and the WW1-allies who frankly had been too merciless on the Germans. The Germans had slipped into WW1 because of their stupidity and they went on making insane mistakes, but they hadn't been the only country to blame for WW1. Since the middle-ages the Germans had been a pretty much peaceful people, threatened by the kings of France again and again, successfully defended bei their Kaiser and his friend (!) England -- but finally conquered by Napoleon. Under Bismarck and Wilhelm II. Germany defeated France, but of course went on mistrusting and fearing their neigbor -- awkwardly (the world was pretty much mocking and laughing) slipping into WW1.
This is why you can't compare the III. Reich to any other situation in the world. It sadly was an extreme accident of history. Even the Fascists in South Europe felt the Nazis were nuts, although they were together in a WW2 coalition. So if Hilter was president of the United States, he would just make himself a fool without a buck, because Congress would take away his budget.
My ideal Congress should actually pass a resolution to found a reliable (liberally minded) Special Congress Guard -- very modern equipped armed forces, which are much better armed than the regular U.S. Forces. I mean, Congress has the right and the possibility to decide something like that, to enforce the elimination of the present corporatoricy. You can't do this just with intelligent arguments; those banksters won't go away without being forced. And in case there're really fifth columns which might try to start a civil war, these Congress Forces would be able to arrest those who are responsible beforehand.
Personally I would NOT keep any of the southern states in the Union, if they absolutely should hate a progressive change like that. I would try to convince them to stay -- maybe let their citizens vote on it. Actually it should be possible to convince them it's better to live in a modern, just and peaceful America.
In a few things I feel like Congress should roll back state rights, wherever they are a threat to the Union. For example, the Federation should have the right to organize elections in a state, if there are severe cases of voter fraud. Any ballot should be watched and followed by members of all political parties anyway. Checked and balanced.
Wall Street would probably panic and many banksters try to leave the country. Because order and justice would be undoubtedly enforced. All this is possible, if the American people want it. It is! But not, if too many Americans make wrong decisions at the ballot. Actually very harmful, fatal decisions which can totally ruin all of us. On election day you have the power people! Use it and use it right.
#15
Very interesting history lesson...thanks. Couldn't happen here? Just give Mitt Romney a chance... armed with the current opportunities for a President to murder anyone, including American citizens, he so chooses for whatever reason he wants...as long as he calls it a "war against terrorism" we may as well start practicing our seig heil salute. I mean the Democrats are supposed to be in power but the Republicans have the Democrats scared sh!tless. What do you think it would be like if the Republicans actually were in power. I'm thinking...Soylent Green..may be their solution to poor and old people.
I knew that Germany was hit with impossible reparations that quickly led to uber inflation so bad that you needed a wheel-barrow to carry the Marks needed to buy a loaf of bread.
I wonder what Americans would do if that happened here? I guess we'd be reduced to having to eat "pink slime". And I'd rather die of starvation than eat that or any red-meat or pork product. Good thing I quit eating that stuff a long time ago...but I'll bet they included that slop in all those fast food burgers I used to eat...a long time ago.
And as I pick up bits and pieces of "news" from CNN this evening, I find yet another young black was murdered..gunned down...even though he was unarmed. Pasadena police reacted to a fake 911 call and shot this young man because "they thought he had a weapon". What the hell are they trying to do start a race war? So what is their response?...Oh, we're so very sorry...we are going to hold the fake 911 caller up for murder charges. Duh! Yes, you should come down hard on the fake 911 caller...but the Pasadena police are no more innocent of cold blooded murder than Zimmerman was. And the police are supposed to be highly trained professionals.
#16
Yes, America might slowly slip into the kind of South American non-democracy -- that's what worries me. Hal Sparks today told another case of a cop in Houston, threatening some blacks, who didn't do anything, with his taser. Arizona just passed a new law, that makes "annoying" websites as illegal as robocalls. This blog actually is supposed to annoy right-wingers. So are we in Arizona illegal, while here exercising our 1st Amendment rights?!
But in case there'll be a liberal dominated Congress after November -- how would those radical southern states deal with that? If it is so that liberals are increasingly leaving the south, the difference will get even extremer. To me this looks like gangrene....
The key problem is the south -- holding up any kind of progressive change. There gotta be a strong progressive Congress, not hesitating to intervene in southern states. We can't go on just watching them dragging us all into the abyss. They voters will decide that in November....
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These banksters want you to vote for Republicans in November, folks. So if you like what happens in Wall Street : Donate to the banksters, just vote as they want you to vote.....
I mean, be nice and do something for our actual Welfare Queens in Wall Street. They never get enough and ask for government money too. These are the Welfare Queens, how President Reagan had described them.
If you have some gold in your dentition, they might find a way to get even that. And why shouldn't they have a right to do that, in case you should vote for Republicans -- what else do you expect??
So be nice to the Welfare Queens in Wall Street -- donate to the banksters by voting for Republicans.