The Budget Brigade would like to wish you all a great holiday season and a super New Year.

We would also like to thank all of our readers for following our work supporting us in 2008. We will be on vacation until January, but will return in 2009 to continue keeping an eye on things.

Image by Flickr user wan · der · lust used under a Creative Commons license.

We're on the verge of the holidays this Monday and the Associated Press reported yesterday that bank executives around the country received an early present this year, courtesy of Joe and Jane Taxpayer:

Banks that are getting taxpayer bailouts awarded their top executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses, and other benefits last year, an Associated Press analysis reveals.

The rewards came even at banks where poor results last year foretold the economic crisis that sent them to Washington for a government rescue. Some trimmed their executive compensation due to lagging bank performance, but still forked over multimillion-dollar executive pay packages.

Benefits included cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management, the AP review of federal securities documents found.

The total amount given to nearly 600 executives would cover bailout costs for many of the 116 banks that have so far accepted tax dollars to boost their bottom lines.

We reported earlier this year about bank and financial institution executives who were receiving outrageous salary, bonus, and retirement packages after running their companies into the ground. John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch, who received the largest compensation for 2008 in the AP study, made headlines earlier this month when he lobbied for at least a $10 million bonus (he argued he was brought in after the risky decisions were made and managed to sell the company off to Bank of America. Hmmm...).

It's bad enough that the leaders of these institutions are being rewarded with unimaginable amounts of money for horrible performance, but the fact they are being paid with taxpayer dollars is enough to make anybody say "good grief." Happy Holidays!

Image by Flickr user K!T used under a Creative Commons license.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistic reported the largest job loss numbers since 1974 as the economy lost 533,000 jobs and the unemployment rate pushed higher to 6.7 percent. This news, combined with last week's pronouncement that the U.S. economy is officially in a recession shows that we are now in deep trouble.

On Friday, The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a statement on the job loss numbers that underscores the bleak economic outlook, focusing on in impact this downturn will have on individuals and families living in poverty and those who are about to fall into such dire economic circumstances:

Today's report also makes it more likely that unemployment will reach 9 percent by the end of 2009, as Goldman Sachs has predicted. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates this could swell the number of Americans living in poverty by up to 10 million and the number of Americans in deep poverty, with incomes below half the poverty line, by up to 6 million...

This week the National Bureau of Economic Research determined that a recession began in December 2007. In the ensuing 11 months, employers have shed jobs each month and the losses have accelerated sharply in recent months. Overall labor market trends are grim.

CBPP also points out that the current recession is already one-month longer than the post-World War II average. Yet it feels like we are just getting started with this one. Yikes!

CBPP: STATEMENT ON THE NOVEMBER EMPLOYMENT REPORT
NY Times: U.S. Loses 533,000 Jobs in Biggest Drop Since 1974

It's felt like it for a while, but the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research announced today that we are in a recession and it began in December 200.

The committee determined that a peak in economic activity occurred in the U.S. economy in December 2007. The peak marks the end of the expansion that began in November 2001 and the beginning of a recession. The expansion lasted 73 months; the previous expansion of the 1990s lasted 120 months.

Image by Flickr user Randy Son Of Robert used under a Creative Commons license.