Ann Landers once provided her definition of chutzpah in her column.  She wrote that chutzpah is the young man pleading for mercy from the court because he is an orphan—when he was being sentenced for murdering his parents.

That’s kind of what’s been going through my head today after reading an article from Bloomberg News.  The headline of the article read “Bonus Withdrawal Puts Bankers in Malaise”.   So while you’re reading the rest of this play this song because it really, really fits these guys.

Now I don’t know if the headline was suggesting that bonuses have been withdrawn or that bankers were suffering withdrawal like an addict goes through but probably it doesn’t matter.

Over the last few years I’ve gotten kind of numb to the machinations of brokers and investment bankers and the harm they have done to both our economy and our nation.  And I’ve avoided taken too much umbrage because it just doesn’t do any good.

I’ve kind of taken an approach like Mister “T” who has long been know for saying “pity the fool”. 

But this is just the absolute worst kind of arrogance.  Unmitigated gall.  Sense of entitlement.  Here’s a couple of excerpts from the article that really got me spitting and spluttering:

"People who don't have money don't understand the stress," said Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy. "Could you imagine what it's like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?"

And:

The malaise is shared by Andrew Schiff, the New York-based marketing director for Euro Pacific Capital, where his brother is CEO. His family rents the lower duplex of a brownstone in Cobble Hill, where his two children share a room. His 10-year- old daughter is a student at $32,000-a-year Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn. His son, 7, will apply in a few years.

"I can't imagine what I'm going to do," Schiff said. "I'm crammed into 1,200 square feet. I don't have a dishwasher. We do all our dishes by hand."

He wants 1,800 square feet -- "a room for each kid, three bedrooms, maybe four," he said. "Imagine four bedrooms. You have the luxury of a guest room, how crazy is that?"

The family rents a three-bedroom summer house in Connecticut and will go there again this year for one month instead of four. Schiff said he brings home less than $200,000 after taxes, health-insurance and 401(k) contributions. The closing costs, renovation and down payment on one of the $1.5 million 17-foot-wide row houses nearby, what he called "the low rung on the brownstone ladder," would consume "every dime" of the family's savings, he said.

"I wouldn't want to whine," Schiff said. "All I want is the stuff that I always thought, growing up, that successful parents had."

Here's a link to the full article:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-29/wall-street-bonus-withdrawal-means-trading-aspen-for-cheap-chex.html

Awwwwww, too bad for those poor fellows and their underprivileged children.  Having to sacrifice by only renting their summer home for 1 month rather than 4.  Having to risk the spectre of their children attending public schools with the “unwashed” and “untouchable”. 

Man I feel bad for these guys.  Don’t you?  They are so obviously struggling just to make ends meet.

And people wonder why there is talk of a risk of class warfare in this nation?  And people wonder why so many are angry at the “1%”?

I just leads me to shake my head and mutter to myself, “assholes.”