Money, Money, Money...

Noted:

President Obama is pouring $75 Billion into helping Americans keep their homes. These are Americans who borrowed too much when the most commonly heard word in real estate circles was "bubble." Sadly, it may not help those who invested in housing as a speculative endeavor to make money. Someone should show them the dictionary definition of speculation. You know, the part where it says "risky."

The city of New York is putting $45 Million into helping those other victims of the Mortgage Meltdown. Those are the ones known as Wall Streeters. Bankers. Investment bankers. Analysts. I know we're all relieved to know they are getting some assistance as their jobs disappear.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the program which will help retrain the bankers, saying he believes the financial industry will rebound, but "We’re not waiting for that day to come."

The city expects to lose 31,000 jobs in the financial sector this year. $45 Million will pay for a lot of hot dog carts.

GE's CEO, Jeff Immelt has declined his annual bonus. GE's board approved eliminating the $12 Million payment. Mr. Immelt will make do on his $3.3 Millions in regular pay this year. On behalf of all my friends who work (or did until recently) at NBC stations and are currently re-applying for their jobs, I'd like to say something, but I don't write things like that out.

One analyst said Immelt couldn't be blamed for GE's stock price dropping from a 52 week high of $38.52 to under $11 per share. "Immelt's fault? Only if he could see the recession coming." Why couldn't he see it? The rest of us have been howling over it for more than a year.

Meantime, nobody else at NBC stations got to waive anything. They don't get to waive buyouts, layoffs, learning new skills, filling out those job (re)applications with weird new titles or having to work at triple speed to produce news products that will be embarrassingly poor quality, since they are now told "It's not about quality. It's about survival."

I wonder if Mayor Bloomberg has a program for them?