From Pine View Farm

Masters of the Universe category archive

Chasing Votes 0

Jamie Dimon is upset that Hillary Clinton doesn’t care enough about bankers’ fee-fees.

Hell, if I hadn’t been supporting her already, this would have turned the trick.

Share

The Great Migration 0

I have been banking at Wells-Fargo.

It wasn’t a choice. It just happened.

I was banking at a regional bank that got gobbled up by Wachovia. Then, two minutes before the bubble burst, Wachovia bought Fly-by-Night Mortgage Company, Inc., and was taken down by the bursting bubble, so I ended up with Wells.

Though I have not had a bad experience with any local Wells-Fargo branches or any Wells-Fargo employees, it is difficult not to conclude from recent news reports that Wells-Fargo has a deeply corrupt corporate culture at the highest levels.

As my first wife would have said, they have plucked my last nerve.

Accordingly, I have spent most of the last two days moving my banking business to another bank. (This was made easier by my choosing to use minimal online billpay. I’m not agin’ it; I just feared that I wouldn’t be able to keep track of it, so I still write “checks”–they are made from paper and they take the place of currency; you may have heard of them. Consequently, I had only about four online thingees to change.)Get out of Jail free card

Yesterday I called up my pension fund (I’m old) to change my direct deposit from Wells to my new bank. After we had completed our business, the obliging fellow on the phone told me that they had gotten “lots of phone calls moving from Wells-Fargo” in the last week (and good for the callers, say I!).

I reminded him of the news stories. He said, “Oh, yeah. I remember reading something about that.” What followed was a cordial discussion about how a three-piece suit seems to be a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card and about how he and I were on the same wave-length about bankers and banking, but I digress. . . .

Now, I shall wait a month or so to be sure that everything is copacetic and then I shall finally forego Fargo for all time.

Share

Just Compensation 0

Wells-Fargo CEO standing beside two huge carts of mail to mailroom worker:  One holds pink slips for our conniving customer service workers.  The other carries fat performance bonus for our high-achieving senior management team.  Don't mix them up.


Click to see the image at its original location.

Share

The Rich Are Different from You and Me 0

Get out of Jail free card
They carry the very special invitation-only orange card.

Share

Thom Spikes the Hype about TPP 0

Share

Overlords 0

Uncle Sam with hat out before huge desk.  Plutocrat labeled

Share

Only in It for the Money, Reprise 0

Lifeguard holding life preserver and labeled


Click for the original image.

Share

A. Workers in China 0

Q. Who polishes the Apple?

El Reg reports

. . . according to watchdog group China Labor Watch . . . the Cupertino giant has asked the companies that assemble its products to cut their own costs, and those demands have led them to cut back on worker pay and factory conditions.

(snip)

“Currently, Apple’s profits are declining, and the effects of this decline have been passed on to suppliers. To mitigate the impact, Pegatron has taken some covert measures to exploit workers.”

Follow the link for the complete story.

Share

Only In It for the Money 0

Wendell Potter doesn’t try to hide his disgust at Aetna’s antics.

Health insurers . . . once again are demonstrating that nothing—absolutely nothing—is more important to them than making their rich shareholders even richer.

If that means making it more difficult for low- and middle-income Americans to get the medical care they need, so be it. “Too bad, so sad,” to use a phrase one of my former colleagues used to say when people complained about the way health insurers routinely screw their customers.

(snip)

In fact, it is Aetna’s government business (Medicare and Medicaid–ed.) that is the only segment that is growing. Aetna and most of the other for-profit insurers have been losing private-paying customers on a regular basis for some time. But not to worry. As long as Uncle Sam has the Medicare and Medicaid faucets wide open and flowing straight into the insurers’ bank accounts, they couldn’t care less.

Read the rest.

Share

Original Spin 0

Image:  Conservatives believe that individuals can't be moral unless restrained by authority, but corporations will be virtuous without regulation.

Via Rants from the Rookery.

Share

The Fee Hand of the Market (Update) 0

Monopoly: it’s not just a game; it’s a business plan.

Title:  EpiPen Demonstration:  Man holding Epipen:  The EpiPen is a safe method of stopping Anaphylactic shock.  Anaphylactic shock can be induced by a number of causes.   For example, suppose you just read that the cost of the EpiPen just increased by 600% and the Big Pharma CEO producing it got a $17 million raise. (Man stabs himself with EpiPen).

Addendum, Later that Same Day:

At The Guardian, Liz Richardson Voyles writes of living with her daughter’s food allergies, which necessitates having EpiPens in the ready. A snippet:

American policymakers just woke up to a reality many American families have been living for years: the US medical system is tilted so far in favor of drug companies, that those reliant on life-saving medications are at the mercy of pharmaceutical manufacturers’ nearly limitless desire to line their pockets. I am a mother in one of those families.

Share

In No Way Related . . . . 0

AETNA spokesperson to rural man:  As a rural person, I'm sure you can understand our decision to pull out . . . . (man clutches chest) We were losing money in your county.  (Man is in hosptal bed)  It had nothing to do with the Feds blocking our merger with Humana.  (Man in cemetery plote)  Oh, I see you've already found another provider.


Click for the original image.

Share

“My Way or the Highway” 0

CEO’s have temper tantrums too.

Via Mother Jones.

Share

The Expendables 0

Share

Career Paths 0

Danae:  Daddy, can you explain to Lucy why there aren't any monsters under the bed.  Father:  Yeah.  They all crawled out years ago and went into banking.  Now go to sleep.  Lucy:  I can never tell when he's joking.  Danae:  Adults like it that way.


Click for the original image.

Share

Learning To Loot 2

Share

The World Is Their Oyster (and Their Oyster Knives Are in Hock) 0

Graduating students taking selfie see large bags of

Click to see the image at its original location.

I was lucky. My parents paid for my college education. Back in the olden days, when I was a young ‘un, that was indeed possible for middle class families. Hell, when I was a young ‘un, there was still a “middle class.”

That was before college tuition became incredibly expensive and student loans became an instrument for perpetuating penury and paying for banksters’ country-club memberships.

Aside:

I got a letter today asking me to contribute to some memorial for Ronald Reagan. I shall answer it with an envelope full of subscription cards for The Nation, hoping that the senders will read it and learn something.

But they won’t.

Share

Paper Mills 0

Thoreau.

Share

Chemical Dependency 0

Share

David Dayen on Wall Street’s Foreclosure Three-Card Monte 0

Part One:

Part Two:

Share
From Pine View Farm
Privacy Policy

This website does not track you.

It contains no private information. It does not drop persistent cookies, does not collect data other than incoming ip addresses and page views (the internet is a public place), and certainly does not collect and sell your information to others.

Some sites that I link to may try to track you, but that's between you and them, not you and me.

I do collect statistics, but I use a simple stand-alone Wordpress plugin, not third-party services such as Google Analitics over which I have no control.

Finally, this is website is a hobby. It's a hobby in which I am deeply invested, about which I care deeply, and which has enabled me to learn a lot about computers and computing, but it is still ultimately an avocation, not a vocation; it is certainly not a money-making enterprise (unless you click the "Donate" button--go ahead, you can be the first!).

I appreciate your visiting this site, and I desire not to violate your trust.