Where’s The Fairness?
Posted by John Malloy on 03/28/2009
Brass get bonsues. Consumers lose jobs, go bankrupt:
By LINDA LEATHERDALE
March 24 — Sadly, this is just another sign of these disgusting times.
One of Canada’s worst managed companies – Nortel Networks, now in bankruptcy protection – is paying out $7.3 million in executive bonuses so key personnel won’t leave, while senior brass already walked away with fortunes as the ship went down.
And on Main Street, struggling families suffering job losses are filing for EI benefits or declaring personal bankuptcy at a rapid pace.
According to latest statistics released today, more than 117,000 Canadians filed for bankruptcy in the 12-month period ending January 2009 – up 15.8% from a year ago. In January alone, more than 10,000 threw in the towel, reports the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy Canada, up 2.9% from December. In the same month, the number of Canadians filing for employment insurance (EI) benefits jumped above the 500,000 mark, while in February the number jumped another 23% from a year ago.
Experts will argue Canada’s unemployment rate, now a 7.7%, up almost 2% from a year ago, is still quite low. But, what about the chronically unemployed who haven’t been counted for years since the “re-engineering days” of the Nasty Nineties, when Freedom 55 became a boot out the corporate door?
Another sign – as socialism reigns on Bay Street and brutal capitalism thrives on Main Street – is the number of businesses going under. In the first month of this year, another 567 businesses pulled the plug and filed insolvency papers – up 2.5% from December. Though overall the number slipped in Ontario, manufacturing bankruptcies were up 24%.
Meanwhile, the anger over excessive executive pay and fat-cat bonuses is sparking riots. Today, on Capitol Hill in Washington, loud rioters interrupted hearings by the House financial services committee into the US$165-million bonuses paid to top AIG brass, after $173 billion of taxpayers’ money was pumped into the ailing insurer in four separate bailouts…
lindaleatherdale.com
Posted by
John Malloy on 03/28/2009. Filed under
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