Warning: this diary is intended to be a blunt instrument, not a necessarily accurate portrayal of financial institution accounting, financial institution executive compensation, federal regulation of financial institutions, or imaginary numbers.
It is, however, intended to be an accurate portrayal of Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper, who have been spot-on this issue for many, many years.
So our friendly banks are back again, having had enough of asking for more money, and are now asking for less money so they can continue their boondoggle of overpaying C-levels while pleading poverty. Their whining evokes images of Nancy Kerrigan after getting her knee bashed in . . . or as the kids say today, "whining like a little twirl-girl."
Serious discussions of this are readily available, such as this diary by DHinMI.
I'm thinking, though, this kind of duplicity, this kind of revisionist contracting, is beyond outrageous. Dammit, Janet, these SOBs should go to prison for having the stones to beg for billions and then give some of it back so they can continue to over-compensate C-levels, EVPs, SVPs, and any other really special employees with important sounding TLA titles.
So what has led to this Alice-In-Wonderland-ish absurdity?
I'm not a great thinker, but I think one viable theory is that these financial institutions have been using the imaginary number "i" in accounting, financial reporting, and yes, calculating executive compensation.
The problem is that they don't really understand i any better than I do, which is to say, they are pretty clueless.
Here's what Mojo and Skid have to say about banks:
"I Hate Banks"
Lastly, in the spirit of light-hearted venting and a generally cathartic getting your kumbaya-yas out, select from this handy list the closest approximation of what you think about all this.