Today I read an article about President Obama stating that the jobless claims will increase before the end of the year, which is not only discouraging to one like myself who is looking for a job, but also disheartening when one thinks of all those people out there who are struggling to support their families and have yet to get a reprieve from the job market. And yet, investment firm Goldman Sachs, which was part of the financial crisis, has not only survived, but has acquired great profit in this turmoil.

In his article yesterday, Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com provides a timeline from September 2008 to today regarding the financial crisis:

Remember all of this — the $700 billion bank bailout, the AIG scandal, dark and scary threats of imminent global meltdown if there wasn’t full-scale capitulation by the citizenry to the immense transfer of public wealth to the private investment banking sector? Such distant, hazy memories: so many exciting celebrity deaths and riveting celebrity resignations ago. If sequences of events like these don’t cause mass citizen outrage, then it’s hard to imagine what will:

Read on

By the way, if you don’t already include Glenn Greenwald’s articles as part of your daily reading, you should.

I was reading an article in New York Times about Washington Mutual’s collapse, Government Seizes WaMu and Sells Some Assets when I came across this:

But the seizure and the deal with JPMorgan came as a shock to Washington Mutual’s board, which was kept completely in the dark: the company’s new chief executive, Alan H. Fishman, was in midair, flying from New York to Seattle at the time the deal was finally brokered, according to people briefed on the situation. Mr. Fishman, who has been on the job for less than three weeks, is eligible for $11.6 million in cash severance and will get to keep his $7.5 million signing bonus, according to an analysis by James F. Reda and Associates.

*Whew*