Ward on Words

The first decade of the new millennium is the "lost decade" for America, the one where we lost a surplus, gained a massive deficit, declared two wars with no intention of funding them, rounded up the usual suspects in those wars and set them to rot without charges in Gitmo for an undetermined amount of time, and threw in some VP-sanctioned torture as an add-on to the new millennial approach to national security. It was a decade that began with all the drama of the hanging chad, a hotly contested presidential election teetering on the decision of Florida voters, a state led by the brother of one of the presidential candidates. We finally came to decide the next president of the United States based on the opinions of the nine justices of the US Supreme Court. The brother of the Florida governor won. When it comes to allegations of rigging a presidential election, the Daleys of Chicago have got nothing of the Bushes of America. The transition of power happened peacefull...

Jon Stewart's take on the absence of three CEOs from an important meeting with the President of the United States... The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - Flight Delay www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis Apparently, phoning it in was the best way for these top-notch bankers, mired in fog, to touch base with Obama... It's a bitch when weather gets in the way of a personal meeting with the president.

New job requires a daily commute on the Metra. Went to buy my monthly pass and discovered a notice posted on the ticket window informing all patrons that credit cards will be accepted at the train stations in the spring of 2010. It's cash or check until then... Ten years into the new millennium, credit cards will FINALLY be accepted at Chicago's metra train system. Nice way to reinforce the antiquated nature of this mode of transport...

...for all 30 members of its management team. Nice press release includes few pertinent details. Would love to know if this means the 30,000+ employees not affected by this plan now get bigger bonuses. After all, Goldman's $17 billion bonus stash needs to be distributed to the many thousands of deserving employees, right? In the press release, Lloyd Blankfein offers up this quotable nugget: "The measures that we are announcing today reflect the compensation principles that we articulated at our shareholders' meeting in May. We believe our compensation policies are the strongest in our industry and ensure that compensation accurately reflects the firm's performance and incentivizes behavior that is in the public’s and our shareholders’ best interests. "In addition, by subjecting our compensation principles and executive compensation to a shareholder advisory vote, we are further strengthening our dialogue with shareholders on the important issue of compe...

Bank of America is set to pay back $45 billion it owes TARP. Funny how the need to free the company from CEO pay restrictions provided motivation for such an action... For more, here's Felix Salmon's report . And here's what the WSJ has to say .