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.

Seriously, is anyone surprised by this information? A few months ago I suggested that the bailout would be doomed. Anyone could have seen this coming. Who in their right mind would trust the government with such a gigantic dollar amount? It’s insane. Did everyone forget that this is the government?!

The better way to have used that bailout money would have been to give each American a stipend a la the Bush stimulus check from last spring. Why would this have been a better use of the money? Because regular citizens know where they need financial assistance and how best to spend their tax dollars. When you leave the doling out of $350 billion (only half of the $700 billion bailout has been deployed) to the government, you’re essentially asking for the whole thing to go to shit.

And it has. Great!

For my part, I usually go shopping the day after Thanksgiving in part because of the hysteria of the day and in part because there are great deals to be found if you look for them. One of the places that I go to look for these deals is Black Friday Ads. This is a site that posts the much sought after Black Friday specials and sales for all of the major retailers. A few years ago a consortium of retailers tried to have this site shut down arguing that they were sharing private information. However, the popularity of the site proved that consumers want to know about Black Friday deals well in advance of the wee hours of that Friday morning.

Being led by the shrewd business people that some of them are, a few companies used this critical market research to begin publicizing their Black Friday specials on their websites in advance of the actual holiday. This Christmas season has seen yet another shift in strategy as major companies like Wal-Mart are now offering “Pre-Black Friday” sales. For example, Wal-Mart offered a $298 Compaq laptop computer (only 10 per location) on the morning of November 8th. I think Wal-Mart has the right idea here because they are rewarding those early shoppers with great deals and keeping some of the hysteria in place associated with the Black Friday aura.

At the end of last year’s Christmas season I was sure to pick up a good supply of the “other” things that celebrators need for this time of the year: bows, holiday scented candles, Christmas cards, tags, tape, tissue paper, Christmas boxes, etc. That stuff can actually add up if bought in one pre-Christmas Day purchase! All I need to get this year are the presents to fill the wrapping paper and for which to place the tags. I don’t anticipate going crazy this year for Christmas, but I do have an idea of what I am going to buy for everyone on my list.

Haven’t checked that list twice yet, though…