A loophole in the $700 billion financial bailout effectively means that participating firms can pay their executives exorbitantly after all. “The flimsy executive-compensation restrictions in the original bill are now all but gone,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa. Shouldn’t shame be enough to keep CEOs from cashing in on a taxpayer bailout?
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28 Comments
One doesn’t question one’s religious beliefs.
The Church of the Holy Marketplace says that any salary one can command is necessary and right.
Unless of course that salary is set by the collective bargaining of a union, in which case it is abomination before the Lord Mammon.
The “CEO salary” meme is symbolic only; in terms of actual impact, these salaries are indeed the proverbial raindrop in the ocean.
And yes, Capn, salaries are indeed whatever the market can command, as it should be. I got no problems with unions negotiating the best salary/benefits package they can get. The one institution that should NOT dictate what persons (of any status) are paid is government.
Let’s see, GMC . . . who decides what salary you get paid?
The government.
Hmmmm . . .
If the CEO salaries are only raindrop in the proverbial ocean, then why do Republicans go ballistic about the lowest paid workers (labor) and their salaries? Doesn’t it all go to the same ocean?
Paulson takes care of his own. Most of those ceos that are making out like bandits have connection to Goldman Sachs and Paulson.
They shouldn’t have gotten the money in the first place.
It is the short term focus on upping the ceo’s stock values that causes much of the economy’s distress.
“The flimsy executive-compensation restrictions in the original bill are now all but gone,”
The poor restrictions on the bailout package in general are all the result of rushing pass something without fully thinking it through and working out the details.
If we would have only invested in glob
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By Editor on September 9, 2003 12:28 PM | Permalink
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The poor restrictions on the bailout package in general are all the result of rushing pass something without fully thinking it through and working out the details.
Exactly correct. That and, Bush/Paulson’s obvious coziness with the crooks in the first place.
In other news:
$700 Billion Bailout Celebrated With Lavish $800 Billion Executive Party
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/700_billion_bailout_celebrated
Shouldn’t shame be enough?
Shame didn’t stop the robber barons when they created our current disaster by deciding to not only prey on the middle class, but use the poor to steal from their own kind too. Shame didn’t seem to inhibit that Paragon of Virtue Madoff from financially cannibalizing his fellow rich bastards either. Why should it stop the current batch of Wall Street CEO’s from looting the treasury for all they can get? Rhonda, you’re relying on shame where none exists. Capitalism, like communism seems to contain the seeds of its own destruction.
Hmmm… Maybe the founding fathers were right.
“We have no government armed in power capable of contending in human passions unbridled by morality and religion… Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. “ -John Adams 1798
We seem determined to test.
“We have no government armed in power capable of contending in human passions unbridled by morality and religion… Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. “ -John Adams 1798
Adams was not the source of all wisdom, but even if he was, so what? Assuming you actually read the words you posted, shouldn’t you be convincing people to get religion, then, instead of suggesting that it somehow has something to do with government??
Let’s see, GMC . . . who decides what salary you get paid?
The government.
Hmmmm . . .
On the contrary, Capn. You show a remarkable, if not unsurprising, lack of understanding of basic economics.
My pay is set, just as all are, ultimately, by the market. My employer decides what to pay in making a judgement as to what pay is necessary to attract and hold the personnel they need; if they’re right, they get their people. If they’re wrong, they won’t, or get too many. If I don’t like my salary, I am free to leave, and my employer will have to either find a suitable replacement, or do without. If they cannot find a suitable replacement with the salary offered, they will have to adjust their offer upward; if, by contrast, they are flooded with more than qualified applicants, they may conclude they are paying more than necessary to fill the position.
Either way, my salary is ultimately set by the market. Wishing this market did not exist will not make it go away, nor, frankly, will gov’t interference in it in attempting to dictate salaries. They will screw it up (as gov’t generally does), but it will not disappear. It is a simple reflection of human nature.
During his tenure at G.S. Paulson managed to skim off 700 mil. personal fortune. Unregulated greed is the downfall of our financial system, when conjoined by a lazzez faire requlatory, courtesy of bushco.
Just heard some big shot at the SEC was involved with and married Madoff’s niece, could their be any connectin with that and the SEC ignoring complaints against madoff and never having it referred to the board for investigation?
Some poor schmuck had his entire retirement 1.2 mil. invested with madoff, and now has nothing. Madoff should never see daylight again.
Hmmmmmmmmm………..
Let me see.
I have two choices.
1) Being “shameful”.
2) Being a multi-millionaire.
Which one should ol’ nutball RP choose?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…ha.
The guy that married madoff’s niece was an attorney at the sec for about the same time the red flags had been raised.
“RP_McMurphy
Posted December 17, 2008 at 4:09 pm | Permalink
Hmmmmmmmmm………..
Let me see.
I have two choices.
1) Being “shameful”.
2) Being a multi-millionaire.
Which one should ol’ nutball RP choose?”
Are the choices mutually exclusive?
Shouldn’t shame be enough to keep CEOs from cashing in on a taxpayer bailout?
Lol, NO, why with all that money, you can wash away your shame by taking a vacation. I take the money, then go to Confession, and then everything would be all straight, right????????
Without the CEO’s there would be no jobs from corporate America.
“Without the CEO’s there would be no jobs from corporate America.”
What is good about jobs for corporate America?
“My pay is set, just as all are, ultimately, by the market”
Hmmm.
True to a degree.
It has to be (I HOPE) hard for government to find sanctimonious, self important jerks to persecute and prosecute people. One HOPES the market for such folk IS small.
But at the same time? Government has to compete against corporate America for such soulless jerks.
“Without the CEO’s there would be no jobs from corporate America”.
Are you fucking serious? Not that the sentence makes any sense anyway.
It has to be (I HOPE) hard for government to find sanctimonious, self important jerks to persecute and prosecute people.
Oh, I don’t know; I don’t know of many of those folks here, though there are some, just as there are in any walk of life.
However, the level of irony in that statement is almost without precedent, coming as it does from JR, the most “sanctimonious, self important jerk” on this blog.
While it is true that the CEO compensation is a relatively small portion of the money being talked about it is criminal to lead a company straight down the toilet and then get compensated at a rate that is 400 to 500 times that of the average employee. God forbid some other company should steal those losers away with a better compensation package. The CEO pay is shored up by the fact they all serve on each others board of directors. Sort of like corporate incest. It is hard for the employee’s to bite the bullet and cut back on ordering paper clips and pencils so that the CEO can still get his multi-million dollar bonus.
The death penalty should be enacted for ruining the world economy, not a $700 billion dollar payoff. These company executives are criminals and they are getting away with it. This is the problem with the financial sector. No punishment. Financial terrorism is alive and well on wall street.