THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Is Geithner’s Nomination DOA?: “Over a third of the Senate voted against Tim Geithner's confirmation as Treasury secretary, though he did pass the test by 60 to 34,” notes columnist and host of CNBC's Kudlow & Company Lawrence Kudlow:
That is the closest post-WWII margin for a Treasury secretary. According to Bloomberg, seven of the last 23 Treasury-secretary nominees - under which actual Senate roll-call votes were taken - were confirmed by an average vote margin of 95 to one. (The others were confirmed without an official vote count.)
Interestingly, three Democrats voted against: Tom Harkin of Iowa, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. Independent Bernie Sanders also voted no. Noteworthy on the Republican side, Susan Collins of Maine voted against Geithner, accusing him of “inexcusable negligence” in his non-payment of taxes ($43,000) during his IMF days.
Arlen Specter told reporters early on Monday that he would vote yes, but he changed his mind and voted no. Robert Byrd, by the way, captured the sentiments of John Kyl, Jim Bunning, and many others when he said: “Had [Geithner] not been nominated for Treasury secretary, it's doubtful that he would have ever paid these taxes.”
The surprising number of no votes suggests that both parties will keep Geithner on a short leash. And it was President Obama who ran over to the Treasury Department to swear Geithner in right after the Senate vote. This was unusual, but it's clear the new president is trying to stop the bleeding of his new Treasury man. Instead of a hoped-for early confirmation to get the next stage of the financial-bailout package moving, Geithner wound up being one of the last cabinet officers confirmed.
† All The News That’s Fart To Print: The New York Times published a rather droll travelogue on quaintly-named (that is to say, scatologically-named) roads and villages throughout the United Kingdom, such as Butt Hole Road, Crapstone and North Piddle.
[Hat Tip: The Heel, an Ivy-educated attorney with a prestigious New York firm, and occasional contributor to this blog.]
† Living In These Mad, Mad, Madoff Times: With unemployment rates rising in every state, the moneyed class is trying to conceal – but not necessarily curb - wretched excess, reports The Associated Press:
Some shoppers are asking cashiers at high-end stores to put their purchases in plain white paper bags. Others want their expensive clothes and jewelry shipped home so they can walk out of the store without any bags at all.
"There's a sense of there being a gaucheness in spending in excess and coming home with a Louis Vuitton or Chanel bag," says Lucyann Barry, a personal shopper and stylist for New York's ultra-rich. …
Despite the slump, the affluent still maintain lifestyles that would seem extravagant to the vast majority of Americans - hundreds of dollars spent at exclusive restaurants, thousands dropped on shopping sprees.
What's different now is the extra care some are putting into making themselves seem more like everybody else. …
"Rather than buying six jackets at Chanel, let's say, they may buy one jacket," she said. "There's a big difference in getting out of the car with six Chanel shopping bags and getting out with just one."
† Updates To Previous Posts (third item, Your Bonus: $0. Continued Employment: Priceless.): The Wall Street Journal reports that NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo subpoenaed former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain to provide testimony in an investigation of bonuses and other executive compensation at firms that have received bailouts from the taxpayer-funded Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP):
“These subpoenas are part of an ongoing inquiry into billions of dollars in bonuses paid by Merrill Lynch late last year just days before Merrill was taken over by Bank of America," Mr. Cuomo said. "The fact that Merrill Lynch appears to have moved up the timetable to pay bonuses before its merger with Bank of America is troubling to say the least and warrants further investigation.”
† Updates To Previous Posts: (last item, Employers Hiring Forged Documented Aliens Are Lawbreakers In Other Ways, Too): Prosecutors have filed 954 new charges against Jeffrey Heasley, a beef production supervisor at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, IA, reports The Associated Press:
They include alleged child labor violations of employing minors in a meatpacking establishment and for exposing minors to dangerous or poisonous chemicals.
Last September, the Iowa attorney general's office filed more than 9,000 charges against the plant, its owners and managers. Heasley was not one of the managers charged at that time.
Prosecutors accuse the company of hiring minors and in some cases of having children younger than 16 handle dangerous equipment.
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