Meet the 3 pirates former CEOs who received $460 million in compensation for plundering driving their companies into the ground and our nation into a depression recession...

Lemme get this straight: Their companies engaged in what I predict will be revealed to be the biggest violations of public trust and federal lending laws in the history of this country…billions of dollars of shareholder equity has evaporated into the ether, and these clowns were paid almost half-a-billion dollars for their efforts? Man, am I in the wrong business…

During the five-year period from January 2002 through December 2006, the stock of Countrywide, Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup appreciated, and the three CEOs collectively received more than $460mn in compensation.

However, they received rich payouts largely based on profits that didn’t exist.

Their companies booked $20bn in writedowns for the final two quarters of 2007. The three banks to date have reported more than $45bn in writedowns from the crisis. Stocks in their companies have plunged to record lows, and investors have lost tens of billions of dollars.

Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo’s pay drew the most scrutiny in recent testimony before Congressional hearings: He has taken home more than $410 million since becoming chief executive in 1999, including several stock sales made under an automatic plan while the company was buying back shares. In a report released last Thursday, investigators revealed that creative accounting use of a flawed peer group and easy bonus targets helped inflate his pay. He also was entitled to a $37.5 million severance package, though he forfeited that in January, after Congress requested that he testify.

Merrill Lynch’s E. Stanley O’Neal retained more than $161 million after he was ousted in October on top of the $70 million he took home during his four-year tenure: The bulk of the exit pay was linked to previously earned benefits and stock since his departure was deemed a retirement; he did not receive any severance pay. Merrill Lynch, meanwhile, has announced write-offs totaling more than $10.3 billion, and its stock price has fallen sharply.

And then there’s Citigroup’s Charles O. Prince III: He collected the royal sum of $110 million while presiding over the evaporation of roughly $64 billion in market value. He left Citigroup in November with an exit package worth $68 million, including $29.5 million in accumulated stock, a $1.7 million pension, an office and assistant, and a car and a driver. Citigroup’s board also awarded him a cash bonus for 2007 worth about $10 million, largely based on his performance in 2006 when the bank’s results were better. Citigroup has announced write-offs worth roughly $20 billion and its share has plummeted over 60 percent from last year’s high.

Read the Jenny Anderson's eye-opening story in The New York Times here...

College loans feeling subprime fallout...options are shrinking for many students: The fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis is sending shock waves through the college loan industry in New England, limiting options for some students seeking assistance for the fall semester.  Amid a deepening credit squeeze and cutbacks in federal loan subsidies, New Hampshire's nonprofit student-loan agency said this week that it will no longer offer private loans.

The Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority, which lent money to 42,000 college students last year, has so far failed to secure any financing for its loans, as skittish investors shy away from taking on debt. "The broader dislocation in the capital markets has definitely affected the student loan industry," said Tom Graf, executive director of MEFA, a nonprofit state organization. "Clearly there's a trend where [investors] are hesitant to enter the market, and it's a nationwide phenomenon."

You might wanna delay that toga party until you've had a chance to read all about it...

Does misery really enjoy company? Home equity for the average American has dropped below 50% for the first time since World War II, reflecting a widespread decline in home values and relatively loose mortgage practices during much of this decade. The average homeowners' equity — the market value minus mortgage balance — fell to 47.9% at the end of 2007, the Federal Reserve reported last Thursday.

The Fed also issued revisions to earlier reports indicating that, for the first time in record keeping dating back to 1945, home equity was below 50% for the last nine months of 2007. The drop below 50% is partly symbolic: Average home equity was declining even as the last housing boom approached its peak in 2005. But the newly issued number underscores the problems for millions of Americans struggling to hang onto their homes as their mortgage rates adjust upward and their property values decline.

What does this all mean? NostraDover predicts record numbers of homeowners who will simple abandon their houses long before they're foreclosed upon.

Before you call the moving vans, read the entire story...

I’ve been warning you about debt settlement firms for years: It appears I’m not the only one skeptical of their intentions or abilities to deliver on the promises they make! Debt-settlement firms are doing a booming business—and drawing the attention of prosecutors and regulators.

With individuals of all income brackets struggling to pay their bills, many are seeking help from the hundreds of debt-settlement firms that promise to reduce credit-card balances by as much as 70% over several years. Like credit counselors, debt-settlement firms generally collect a single monthly payment from clients.

But rather than disbursing the money to credit-card companies to cover the borrowers' bills, they withhold it. The settlement firms then use the money as a bargaining chip in an attempt to negotiate a lump-sum payout with lenders. These programs have proliferated of late as credit-card debt has soared; the typical U.S. household now has more than $7,000 in outstanding balances, up 45% from five years ago.

The booming business has caught the attention of prosecutors and regulators, who say such programs can leave consumers in worse financial shape. Fees for the services run high. And when banks don't agree to settle—if the settlement firm contacts them at all—consumers get hit with late charges and penalized with higher interest rates, leaving borrowers with even more debt than when they started. Wary of such pitfalls, seven states have already banned settlement activities. Others, such as Iowa, are considering similar rules.

Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general in six states have recently filed complaints against debt-settlement firms. Read the rest of the ugly truth here...

Remember those dopey X-Ray glasses they used to advertise in the back of comic books when you were a kid? I’m sorry to say that they don’t really deliver on the promise. (I guess $3 a pair should’ve been a tipoff.) Well, there’s hope on the techno-horizon!

Check out this X-Ray Camera that really does work:  Out of London comes a camera that can see through people’s clothing at distances of up to 80 foot has been (supposedly) developed to help detect weapons, drugs and explosives. The camera could be deployed in railway stations, shopping centres and other pubic public spaces.

Read how where you can buy one for personal use here…

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