Thousands of top traders and bankers on Wall Street were awarded huge bonuses and pay packages last year, even as their employers were battered by the financial crises.
All told, the bonus pools at the nine banks that received bailout money was $32.6 billion, while those banks lost $81 billion.
Some compensation experts questioned whether the bonuses should have been paid at all while the banks were receiving government aid.
Ya think? I feel like I stumbled into Alice in Wonderland where a fat caterpillar is smoking a lot of hookah, speaking a bunch of gobbledygook and advising me to take mushrooms so I might understand it all. Is it opposite day?
I am getting scammed by the government. Specifically the Parking Violations Bureau of the City of Los Angeles. I went away for Memorial Day weekend, and apparently an officer who was having a particularly low competence day decided to up their average and write me a ticket for missing a license plate. I was parked in Parking Lot C at LAX. There was no ticket on my windsheild, I heard about it a month later from a letter letting me know that I better pay it, lest I start accruing additional fines. Now, this is outrageous because BOTH MY PLATES WERE ON, HAVE BEEN ON, AND ARE STILL ON! The tags are even up to date (which I am proud to say that for the first time in many years, I did not let them expire and get a ticket before I updated them). When I called to complain the gal who spoke to me said that the ticket wasn't even valid because it didn't indicate if the front or the back plate was missing, and that it would probably go away. I felt pretty good about that, I wasn't going to have to waste any more of MY TIME on this foolishness. Not so. A month goes by and Thursday I get another letter saying that the ticket is valid, my front plate is missing, and if I want to avoid paying the $25 fine (plus fees if it is not paid within 21 days), I have the option of submitting the following items:
1. A copy of the letter with the proof of correction verified by signature from a law enforcement agency or a dated photograph of the front of the vehicle with the license plate properly attached to the vehicle.
2. $10.00 reduced fine amount per citation plus any late penalty amounts.
This is B.S. I called the office again, got the typical rude girl who wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise, and after she had worked me into a frenzy of anger and bewilderment, offered to transfer me to the office were I could take MY TIME to make my case at a hearing over the matter, after paying the fines. Oh, and by "offering" to transfer me she mentioned that it would cost $2 to transfer the call and hung up before I could even blink. A recording instantly came on "offering" to take my credit card information. I hung up and lost it. I called my district councilman and complained to one of his people. They said the were sorry, had received tickets at the airport before and "that is frustrating" but they couldn't help me and I will have to go through the process. I AM NOT PAYING IT!!! THIS IS THE LAST STRAW!!! I will not pay $25 or $10 or $2! I have been wondering were all the rage is over what has happened in our economy. Today I found mine. They cannont have my money for a bogus, doctored ticket that I didn't earn so they can pay for Michael Jackson's funeral. ...AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!
Beta is a measure of how a particular stock's price moves relative to the market as a whole. It is usually described as a measure of volatility. There are individual stock betas and industry betas.
A beta of one indicates that the stock's price moves exactly with the overall market. For example, if the market goes up 20%, the stock price goes up 20%. Market down 10%, stock down 10%. This is, of course, calculated over a period of months and does not necessarily hold true on a daily basis.
A stock with a beta of more than one is more volatile than the market. If the market goes up, it tends to go up at a greater magnitude (i.e. market goes up 10%, stock goes up 15%). The higher the beta, the more volatile the stock. A beta of less than one indicates that the stock's price is more stable than the market (in general and over a long time period).
A beta for an entire industry would compare how the companies in that industry fare relative to the market. For example, high technology stocks, as a whole, probably have a higher average beta than one. In comparing stocks within an industry, it can be useful to know the industry beta and how a specific company compares to it. For example, if you know that the beta for telecommunications stocks was 1.3 and you found a company in that industry with a beta of 0.8, this would tell you that the company is not only less volatile than the market as a whole, but extremely stable compared to its industry -- which could be good or bad depending on whether you are looking for price stability or rapid price growth.
This is just a brief outline of what beta is and how it is used. For more information, I would have to send you to the library. Look up Capital Asset Pricing Model and Portfolio Management Theory in a good book on long-term investing.
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