Our financial system is crumbling this week.

[dangerous]

Garmin

[dangerous]

Continental Resources

[haltz]

[dangerous]

This graph belongs in Rants.

[AdmiralKird]

Sycamore Networks

I'm shorting this Monday for 4-8% returns by Wednesday. If it doesn't drop, I seriously doubt this thing breaks 3.10 unless the market rallies all week, in which case I'm long everywhere else so no big deal.

[dangerous]

Sycamore Networks

I'm shorting this Monday for 4-8% returns by Wednesday. If it doesn't drop, I seriously doubt this thing breaks 3.10 unless the market rallies all week, in which case I'm long everywhere else so no big deal.

Good luck with that.

[Arthur Dent]

Some of these people really are amazing [expletive].

http://nymag.com/news/businessfinance/56151/

“No offense to Middle America, but if someone went to Columbia or Wharton, [even if] their company is a fumbling, mismanaged bank, why should they all of a sudden be paid the same as the guy down the block who delivers restaurant supplies for Sysco out of a huge, shiny truck?” e-mails an irate Citigroup executive to a colleague.

[Popeye_Card]

Some of these people really are amazing [expletive].

http://nymag.com/news/businessfinance/56151/

“No offense to Middle America, but if someone went to Columbia or Wharton, [even if] their company is a fumbling, mismanaged bank, why should they all of a sudden be paid the same as the guy down the block who delivers restaurant supplies for Sysco out of a huge, shiny truck?” e-mails an irate Citigroup executive to a colleague.

To her mind, extreme compensation is a fair trade for the compromises of such a career. “People just don’t get it,” she says. “I’m attached to my BlackBerry. I was at my doctor the other day, and my doctor said to me, ‘You know, I like that when I leave the office, I leave.’ I get calls at two in the morning, when the market moves. That costs money. If they keep compensation capped, I don’t know how the deals get done."

Boo freaking hoo. Lady, I'm on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year--and they do call. You're not in some special club here. This is the 21st century. Hardly anyone just leaves their job at the office.

[GatewaySnayke]

Wait, so this Citigroup person says that just because you went to a fancy business school and even if you helped run the company into the ground and even though you needed Mommy to whip her boob out and let you suck on the guys who deliver supplies out of their truck that you STILL deserved to be paid handsomely?

Boo freaking hoo. Lady, I'm on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year--and they do call. You're not in some special club here. This is the 21st century. Hardly anyone just leaves their job at the office.

Don't forget about those other Normies who fight fires and crime while simultaneously putting their lives on the line. I guess she doesn't argue that firefighters and police officers should get extreme compensation, even though they more valuable than her.

[greenback44]

This response seems pretty normal to me. They've been living in a bubble -- which is part of the reason we're in this current mess -- and they've got a lot of emotional investment in their financial net worths and their annual salaries. The realization that they're not different from the Sysco delivery guy can't be an easy thing for them, especially since Wall Street has never been particularly interested in hiring people with perspective. Then there are the more tangible anxieties they face, such as losing some or maybe all of their income and, in all likelihood, a good chunk of their retirement savings too. They're not as sympathetic figures as a farmer losing the farm, but they are losing their livelihood nonetheless.

It's a good sign that they're angry though, because it suggests needed change really is on the way. Much of the stuff, like the stress tests, has seemed like a whitewash job, a pathetic attempt to maintain the status quo. Maybe it isn't.

This being a baseball forum:

No one complains when ... A-Rod has a $300 million guarantee.

Yeah, nobody ever gives A-Rod [expletive] over money.