The Deck Chairs Have Been Moved Mr. Ismay

Much of the talk on the Saturday/Sunday morning financial talk show circuit has been centered around this one single issue of how the great printing machine that we now know is Geithner/Bernanke Inc., has successfully avoided financial Armageddon. Meanwhile the so called "experts" in DC and Wall Street are congratulating each other on achieving and implementing the great heist. Does this mean we can reserve the Boom-Boom Room for Labor Day? Will this allow the Goldman/JP Guys to hire the best strippers that TARP/TLGP can buy? Does this mean that Ken Lewis can get his Runaway 69Gold Card back? I think he had miles on that. Can most of Wall Street go back to dancing like Mary Tyler Moore in the 70's? Are we going to make it after all?

In reality all of the above are true for Wall Street, except for the poor saps on main street. Its been a great year for Wall Street, they have fraudulently inflated earnings with bogus mark ups, silly one time gains, non operating mambo jumbo, all in a race to see who can pay back TARP first, so they can set their own bonus targets. The bonus figures will feel like an ulcer at best, at worst it will be nauseating.

You see the ones that are running these shell games know that once the bonus targets are set, they are set in stone. Like AIG, even in the face of great financial upheaval, they will be paid, because after all we live in America where the rule of law, written by the affluent elite no doubt, has said so. How can a deal not be a deal? Especially for the rich & wealthy? Remember ethics and morality are a one way street.

I can guarantee you there will be more bank closures, insolvent institutions, and outright bank seizures, but the bonus money will flow like blood in the streets.

The only thing that has happened is that the powers that be have taken the deck chairs from the front of the Titanic and moved then to where Leonardo and Kate are.

The sense I get is on the day Lehman filed, that was the day the iceberg hit, the day TARP was signed into law, was the day the Paulson like Bruce Ismay of the White Star Line alerted everyone that everything was alright. The masses need to calm down, we are on the job, we surely won't let the ship sink? Will we? The ship can't sink! We need to get all of the important rich passengers (AIG,GS,JPM,MER,MS,and BAC) on the lifeboats as quick as possible, forget about the poor(LEH). Right now on the Titanic Timeline, its just about the time Kate Winslet gets put on one of the lifeboats, and poor Leo is looking down at her. I must admit I did shed a tear here. You get the sense that all is going to be alright, why wouldn't it? The guys are on it. They will never let the ship/economy sink.

They were successful in creating an easing calm for the masses while the rich got on the lifeboats, leaving us on the stern.

30 minutes later the ships lights went out, and the majority of the poor souls who perished were the ones who were told that everything would be all right.

In the meantime, the rich, affluent, and wealthy got their lifeboats and bailouts.

After the ship had sank, there were ones looking for absolution, thinking they will get it via Congress. Congress will do its best dog and pony show to put more lipstick on the great pig, because at the end of the day, they like the rich and wealthy got off the boat.

Its been 97 years since the sinking of the Titanic, but the methods never change.

Can you spot the following in this picture?

Fed Chairman Bernanke
Treasury Secretary Geithner
Lloyd Blankfein of GS
Jamie Dimon of JP
Ken Lewis of BAC
John Mack Of Morgan Stanley
AIG FP

The Taxpayers