Cool idea a little late

Some of my favorite blogs are those which simply share day-by-day trivial happenings. Because I find people fascinating and beautiful -- anything is colourful to me. But for me to share daily nothings seems way too self-absorbed even for me.

On further thought, during this extraordinary time in our generation, it might be interesting, humourous, fun for others to read the day-by-day experiences of a full-grown, well-educated, ambitious, otherwiseresponsible adult sponging off her mother thanks to 8 months of unemployment and a crazy unemployment officer.

So here is my 1st post-- 7 months too late. All the really good stuff happened between September and February. I have a sneaky feeling my life is settling down to managable now. well poop.

Well there's something new- I finally found a way to keep my kittens' litter box clean fast enough to avoid my dog enjoying kitty poop snacks.

there.

So here's today. A very lame, self-indulgent day. Maybe I'll back-track and fake-post "real day-by-day events" just for kicks.

Today began with a long walk with Kennedy. Something quite rare these days given the crazy Chicago winter weather. It was supposed to thunderstorm, but today began without rain, so I thought I better take advantage and take her out. It's been 3 days since she got significant time outside and it's supposed to rain until the weekend. Then again, the weather changes so quickly here, the meteorologists have mis-predicted it every week of the 3 months I've been out here.

Hold on- today began at 6am when I heard a glass crash in the kitchen. My mother's house is far from kitty proof. I've given up trying to safeguard her stuff piled up anywhere and everywhere. So this morning I was woken by Monroe, in her nightly mousehunt, knocking over what became my favorite beer glass here. The 16oz Bears glass my mom got for free from some gas station 20 years ago. When I went to the loo, Monroe ran in as usual and we played and she purred and she snuggled in my lap. On the toilet. Just like Misha. hmmmm

Right now I'm experiencing a heavenly overload of the senses. Rain. City smells. Pedestrians from every background making their way down Broadway. Skyscrapers hidden under heavy rain clouds. Smell of Intelligentsia coffee. The sound of the espresso machine artfully creating the best cappucino in town. People discussing art, literature, politics and laughing. 2 older men playing chess. Devotchka playing through the speaker above me. The muffled roar of the #36 bus. The taste of a REAL chai made from black tea stirred with ground vanilla seed, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, honey and milk. No boxed syrup here. As the song ends, the voices get softer. My head buzzes my eyes drink in the beauty of this misunderstood city. The door opens and the cool wet air blows in accompanied by the smell of fresh rain mixed with taxi exhaust.

Hmm the restaurant across the street has $5 pad thai on Thursdays. I'll have to come back. Wed $5 Guinness. Thurs $5 pad thai. Recessions are fun.

After dropping off my mother, I went up to that Starbucks on North Avenue that has the parking lot. I'm so poor, 50cents for a meter is too much for me right now. I use the Starbucks card my sister gave me to buy a drip coffee knowing I can get a free refill too. Spent 2 hours reading email, playing on facebook, researching ideas for writing, checking what little money I have in my bank account, applying for the 2 jobs I found looking at 12 job sites.

Ran to Borders on North/Halsted for their 50% off sale. Never used my Borders gift card from the holidays. Waited for a sale to make my spending worthwhile. Bought 6 movies-- Barton Fink, Breakfast at Tiffanys ("Cat! cat! ohhhhh where are you cat?! cat!"), Amadeus, Sweeney Todd, The Apartment, and that crazy anime film who's name escapes me right now. I wanted Lagaan, but Borders doesn't carry it. But thanks to my brilliant reenactment of the film's highlights, the staff now wants to get a copy of the film to see its epic epicness for themselves.

NOW it's pouring. I notice the time. I should have walked dogs at PAWS. dammit. I'm so selfish. Those poor dogs don't have enough volunteers to walk them and here I was available and it wasn't raining until noon and I spent my time in a coffee shop and book store.

Off to Trader Joes on Clybourn to pick up some food for dinner tonight. And some electrolyte water for mom. When I write my fake "today's events" post for the weekend, you can read why we need electrolyte water for my mom.

Then to Kreiser's for raw food for Kennedy. I feel sick about this. I want to support Eric's store on Lincoln. He was so sweet giving Kennedy oodles of free treats and food when we first walked into his store in Jan and both looked visibly shell-shocked by our life that month. But he charges $7 more than the other stores. As much as I prefer supporting small businesses, I have to support myself and my babies 1st right now...sigh...

On to DSW to find some galoshes. $60?! I can buy designer boots for less at Bloomingdales. ugh. I'll continue to live with soggy feet.

ok- 1 more hour to kill before picking up mom from Rush/Chicago. I. Need. Internet. So tired of living in Starbucks tho. Hateful. Got it- Intelligensia, My favorite little privately-owned coffee shop when I lived here. Now they have a shop in Silverlake. California. So I come in, it's huge. The yuppies have gone! Perhaps it's the 2pm weekday time that's responsible for this. Good times anyway. I get a chai + some banana bread. Thanks to Mom for loaning me money to buy golashes.

Well, now it's 3pm and I have to resume chauffeur duties. Pick up mom, take her out to Tinley Park for her dentist appointment. Go home, take Kennedy out. Make dinner for everyone. Collapse on the couch to watch The Biggest Loser and old reruns of Boston Legal.

Told you today was a lame one...

Ah-ha!

How Wall Street Continues To Doom Itself
January 30, 2009 11:34 AM ET | Rick Newman | Permanent Link |
We’ve arrived at an ah-ha moment.

Virtually everybody who butters their own bread is outraged that Wall Street, which is becoming a de facto government agency thanks to billions in bailout money, found $18.4 billion in bonuses for bankers who nearly wrecked the world’s financial system in 2008. President Obama’s criticism – “shameful” – is mild compared to what many of us think.

The bankers are bellyaching about a 44 percent decline in bonuses from 2007 levels. That’s like complaining about being served a 40-ounce porterhouse instead of a 70-ounce one.

[See why "Wall Street talent" is an oxymoron.]

Here’s a bit more perspective: Charles Payne, CEO of the research firm Wall Street Strategies, points out that in 1985, Wall Street bonuses totaled $1.9 billion. The average recipient got $13,970. Since 1985, inflation has run 97 percent in total, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That means that something worth $1 in 1985 would be worth $1.97 today. So follow the math:

Wall Street bonus pool in 1985: $1.9 billion

Value in 2008, if indexed for inflation: $3.75 billion

Actual 2008 bonus pool: $18.4 billion

Amount by which bonus pool exceeded inflation: 490 percent

Average Wall Street bonus, 1985: $13,970

Value in 2008, if indexed for inflation: $27,580

Actual average bonus, 2008: $112,000

Amount by which average bonus exceeded inflation: 406 percent

So pay for top Wall Streeters has risen 4 to 5 times as much as the rate of inflation since 1985. Of course those bankers are worth it, because of all the great things they’ve done for America during that time, like engineer the Long-Term Capital Management meltdown in 1998, the tech bubble that burst in 2001, the housing bubble that’s still bursting, a credit freeze that’s producing hypothermia at hundreds of real companies that actually make stuff, and the near collapse of the financial markets.

[See why it was a good move to let Lehman Brothers fail.]

If there’s a crowning absurdity, it’s that Wall Street mustered any bonuses at all in a year when the industry lost $34 billion. Does anybody else in America get a bonus when their company tanks? “Rewarding cataclysmic failure like this has to be what led to the fall of the Roman Empire,” Payne wrote in a recent note to clients.

It’s worth pointing out that not all Wall Street firms are as wayward as big offenders like Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, AIG, and Bank of America. Many made money in 2008, and any firm that isn’t asking for taxpayer handouts should be allowed to pay its people whatever it wants.

[See five pieces missing from Obama's stimulus plan.]

But the bonus brouhaha reveals so many disconnects in the financial industry that it could end up being a pivotal moment in the dismantling of the old Wall Street. Derivatives and “funding facilities” are hard for most people to understand. But gimme gimme gimme is a corruption we all understand. If the politicians didn’t have a clear rallying cry for going after Wall Street before, they sure do now.

Another reason to boycott Macys

As if their flagrant disrespect for Chicago history wasn't enough...

C'mon, I know this is actually 2004 bonus money, but getting all this cash ONE DAY after laying off 7,000 paycheck-to-paycheck employees... If this is your bonus, something tells me your annual salary is more than enough to pay the bills after giving back this money to save jobs of those who will be homeless without.

Seriously- I'm sleeping on my mother's couch in her living room for 3+ months because the state of California is too bankrupt to give me the unemployment funds it owes me. I'm a lucky one-- I know others who are sleeping in stairwells thanks, again, to CA bankruptcy. If WallStreet used that bonus money to pay their bills vs. incompetent staff wallets, perhaps there would be funds avail for state governments to pay their massive unemployment benefits- Jesus.

Macy’s execs get performance bonuses

By John Eckberg
jeckberg@enquirer.com

A day after Macy’s executives announced lay-offs of 7,000 workers and cut a dividend in half, top company officials received a final installment on $1.39 million in performance bonuses from 2004.

The stock credit plan created in March 2004 brought five top executives “phantom stock units” or stock credits after a three-year holding period ended on Saturday, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday.

Half of the incentive was paid in February 2008 with the remaining amount paid Monday.

Payments for stock credits and accrued dividends were as follows: Chief executive Terry J. Lundgren, $613,281; Karen Hoguet, chief financial officer, $192,742; Thomas Cole, chief adminstrative officer, $227,794; Janet Grove, vice chair, $227,794; Susan Kronick, vice chair, $227,794.

On Monday the company announced that swooning sales and poor earnings would bring thousands of pink slips to associates and reconfigure management of the company.

Finally SOMEone with a conscience

Good news today from our beloved real superhero, President Obama--

Obama caps executive pay tied to bailout money

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer
44 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Wednesday imposed $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying Americans are upset with "executives being rewarded for failure."

Obama announced the dramatic new government intervention into corporate America at the White House, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at his side. The president said the executive-pay limits are a first step, to be followed by the unveiling next week of a sweeping new framework for spending what remains of the $700 billion financial industry bailout that Congress created last year.

The executive-pay move comes amid a national outcry over huge bonuses to executives heading companies seeking taxpayer dollars to remain afloat. The demand for limits was reinforced by revelations that Wall Street firms paid more than $18 billion in bonuses in 2008 even amid the economic downturn and the massive infusion of taxpayer dollars.

"This is America. We don't disparage wealth. We don't begrudge anybody for achieving success," Obama said. "But what gets people upset — and rightfully so — are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers."

The pay cap would apply to institutions that negotiate agreements with the Treasury Department for "exceptional assistance" in the future. The restriction would not apply to such firms as American International Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., and Citigroup Inc., that already have received such help.

"There is a deep sense across the country that those who were not ... responsible for this crisis are bearing a greater burden than those who were," Geithner said.

Firms that want to pay executives above the $500,000 threshold would have to use stock that could not be sold or liquidated until they pay back the government funds.

Generally healthy institutions would have more leeway. They also face the $500,000 limit if they're getting government help, but the cap can be waived with full public disclosure and a nonbinding shareholder vote.

Obama said that massive severance packages for executives who leave failing firms are also going to be eliminated. "We're taking the air out of golden parachutes," he said.

Other new requirements on "exceptional assistance" will include:
_The expansion to 20, from five, the number of executives who would face reduced bonuses and incentives if they are found to have knowingly provided inaccurate information related to company financial statements or performance measurements.
_An increase in the ban on golden parachutes from a firm's top five senior executives to its top 10. The next 25 would be prohibited from golden parachutes that exceed one year's compensation.
_A requirement that boards of directors adopt policies on spending such as corporate jets, renovations and entertainment.

The administration also will propose long-term compensation restrictions even for companies that don't receive government assistance, Obama said.
Those proposals include:
• Requiring top executives at financial institutions to hold stock for several years before they can cash out.
• Requiring nonbinding "say on pay" resolutions — that is, giving shareholders more say on executive compensation.
• A Treasury-sponsored conference on a long-term overhaul of executive compensation.

Top officials at companies that have received money from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program already face some compensation limits.

And compensation experts in the private sector have warned that such an intrusion into the internal decisions of financial institutions could discourage participation in the rescue program and slow down the financial sector's recovery. They also argue that it could set a precedent for government regulation that undermines performance-based pay.
"It's not a government takeover," Obama stressed in an interview Tuesday with CNN. "Private enterprise will still be taking place. But people will be accountable and responsible."

Still, some elected officials were pushing for the stricter caps.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., has proposed that no employee of an institution that receives money under the $700 billion federal bailout can receive more than $400,000 in total compensation until it pays the money back. Her figure is equivalent to the salary of the president of the United States.

Even some Republicans, angered by company decisions to pay bonuses and buy airplanes while receiving government help, have few qualms about restrictions.

"In ordinary situations where the taxpayers' money is not involved, we shouldn't set executive pay," said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee.

"But where you've got federal money involved, taxpayers' money involved, TARP money involved, and the way they have spent it, with no accountability, is getting close to being criminal."

Returning Home

BY RABBI DAVID WOLPE
In leaving there is discovery: Only when he wanders is Jacob granted a vision. Moses must go to Midian to find God. The Israelites throughout history have only in exile grasped the spiritual contours of home.
All of us raise children in the hope that they will treasure the values we have taught them at home. But we also realize that those values will never be fully realized until our children go off on their own. You cannot know your home if your home is all you know. Out in the world, amid the jostling of other values, ideas and rich possibilities, is the potential to appreciate what one has already learned.
Abraham was told that his descendants would need to one day leave Israel, endure hardship and return to savor its beauty. This is the reverse wisdom of Thomas Wolfe's admonition that you cannot go home again. At times that is true; yet equally if paradoxically, you cannot truly understand home until you have left and go home again.
As Eliot wrote in "Little Gidding," the last of his four quartets:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

on the opposite side of the universe...

...my very poor low-wage vietnamese nail salon goddess insisted I come in for a free mani/pedi.

We crossed paths on the sidewalk last night, we smiled and said "hello!!!" to each other. She said "you not come for long time"

I said "I not work for long time" followed by a sad-pouty face.

To prove myself, I showed my gnarly hands and said "see! Look how disgusting my hands are - so sad!"

She replied "You come in, I do your nails. Free. You come in!"

I cried-

I guess it does pay to be kind and tip well.

Let them eat cake!

ok I used to write funny tidbits I observed, but this past year my writing has been decidedly depressing and self-pitying...

so...

let's change it up-- anger. Uncontrolled, deep rage.

As I read about everyone losing their jobs, and taxpayers paying billions for bail-outs of companies badly run by...clearly MORONS...I want to stand up and SCREEEEEAM as loud as I can. so loud they can hear me over the bloody muslim gunfire in New Delhi and Mumbai.

What--- WHAT is happening with the people, the men, who have made bad decision after bad decision after bad decision?!?! Why do THEY keep their million dollar jobs while the just-getting-by-despite-doing-a-great-jobs all become jobless?!?!

A producer at kcrw just lost her job due to budget cuts due to the recession. After a bloody year of pain and pundits wondering "hmm I wonder if we'll sink into a recession" they FINALLY formally decide we're in one. and have BEEN IN ONE SINCE LAST YEAR. NO F*CKING KIDDING!!! and the stocks....LOL.. the stocks- they plummet after this announcement? Was this really truly news to these people?!

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?~!?~?~ oh yeah, gazillionaires who most likely were raised by bazillionaires and thus have NO IDEA WHAT THE REAL WORLD is.

Back to the jobless producer-- she said "funny, all of those who successfully built lauded and profitable projects lose their jobs. But the top executives who have been bungling everything for years, they still have their million dollar jobs?!"

exactly

WHEN DO WE GET TO SEE HEADS ROLL?!

I haven't had heat in 4 months. I lost the job I was supposed to start in August becuase they had a hiring freeze. Because CA is bankrupt and it's unemployment staff woefully overwhelmed, I was subjected to a 20min verbally abusive tirade that was supposed to be an interview. Followed by a letter accusing me of lying about my conditions of unemployment and telling me I get NO UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS + I have to pay a $500 PENALTY for lying. I filed an appeal, natch. But until I have my court date, the state will take out the penalty from my bank account with no warning. And hold on to the checks I'm supposed to receive. And because the state of California is in such a mess the earliest court date I can expect is sometime in January. I appealed in October. I've not received a check from the state since early September. Oh my f*cking G*d.

I've been paying into unemployment for 25 years! I have not filed for unemployment before because, this is a strange concept, I LIVE FRUGALLY AND SAVE for days I may be jobless!! Well the well has run dry George- and where are you?! Typically, your hiding at the time your country needs you the most. Thank G*D we elected a man who's actually willing to WORK for a living.

I'm about to sublet my apartment and move in with family because despite my intelligence, education, and job experience, I can't pay rent on a moderate apartment. My cousin may have to move in with HIS family -- him, his wife, and their 2 kids.

And I'm supposed to be impressed because the CEO of Ford will work for a dollar. oh boohoo what a hero- That dip in pay certainly will hurt someone who has MILLIONS IN SAVINGS AND ASSETS.

One reason I left my job was my pure and deep disgust for the upper management of the company. The President is a moron who's filled with self-adoration. He announced the company would not be giving bonuses to it's lowest-status (i.e. most overworked and poorest) staff. We were also told raises could not be very good this year due to budget constraints. But, after seeing the jaguar one of his department presidents drives, he announced "ooo! I want to buy that for my teenaged daughter!"

I'm done DONE with the stupid, selfish, clueless upper management in this country. When do we hold the revolt? When do we storm the bastille? Why are we not storming the white house each time a group of overpaid morons begs for handouts in their $3000 suit and $1000 shoes. Delivered in private jets. Driven in limousines. Why are we not rocking them over like we do taxi cabs after winning sports championships? Why not raid and loot the upper offices of Enron, Haliburton, Fannie Mae with the same anger and vigor given to poor local merchants in a poor town after a major hurricane and flood?

If the president of my last employer lived in revolutionary France, his name would be Marie Antoinette. Let them eat cake!