Wall Street stunned by exec pay decision; sympathy in short supply
The Obama administration stunned Wall Street on Wednesday by ordering massive pay cuts for top executives at seven financial firms that still hold billions in U.S. government bailout funds.
The move – which would lower average cash compensation by 90 percent — means the administration is making a frontal assault on Wall Street’s gold-plated compensation culture at a time of growing public anger over the firms’ massive pay and bonuses.
And the plan by pay czar Kenneth Feinberg comes in a week in which the White House has been increasingly aggressive in calling on Wall Street to stand down in its opposition to its regulatory reform proposal for the financial industry.
At the seven firms, total average compensation for many executives would be cut in half, according to an administration official. At AIG, no top executive will receive more than $200,000 in total compensation – a humbling comedown for the once high flying insurance executives at the firm.”
Great. I’m happy to see it, and I hope the examples set a new tone for corporate executives at other companies as well. Such a pushback is long overdue.
After all, these executives aren’t entrepreneurs who built their own companies; they are hired help. They don’t take the big risks that justify big rewards, they use other people’s money to take those risks. The free market does not set their pay and benefits. In effect, they set their own pay and benefits. The executive class behaves much like a guild, an old-fashioned trade association that artificially inflates the pay of its members.
There is no effective check on such compensation. The nominal boss, the shareholders, have no voice on executive pay. Wall Street not only blocks every effort to give stockholders a vote on executive pay packages, most companies refuse to allow even an advisory, nonbinding stockholder vote on the question.
Without a boss to set pay levels, companies hire executive compensation consultants to recommend pay and benefits, but those consultants know that their hopes for future business depend on their willingness to make executives happy. So they do. Those recommendations go to boards of directors largely comprised of executives at other companies, and their natural loyalties are not shareholders but to fellow members of the guild.
As a result, executives are allowed to game the system so they benefit personally whether the company succeeds or fails. It is not pay for performance, it is pay regardless of performance. Look at the case of poor Ken Lewis, who was forced to retire as chairman of Bank of America. Feinberg forced Lewis to surrender his $1.5 million salary for ‘09, but the $69 million in pension and stock benefits that Lewis walks away with should soothe that pain just a bit. For an even more egregious example, look at Bob Nardelli, who was run off at Home Depot but only after pocketing $210 million as going-away money.
I don’t think these executives are evil. We all tend to believe that our hard work and intelligence are worth a lot more than we’re paid. It’s human nature. But executives operate in a system that lets them make that belief reality. Give similar pay-setting power to any group of people — teachers, accountants, journalists — and they would react the same way.
Like the members of the executive guild, they would also scream in protest if anybody stepped in to try to change that sweet little arrangement.
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314 comments Add your comment
Kamchak
October 22nd, 2009
4:26 pm
B-b-b-but it’s the free market. And everyone knows that the free market is self-correcting.
Bosch
October 22nd, 2009
4:30 pm
Wow Jay – we had a zen moment of the same thought. Kamchak thanks!!
Bosch
October 22nd, 2009
4:33 pm
Anyone who would hire Nardelli again for anything is retarded.
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
4:35 pm
Kamchak,
I had to bolt from the last post.
“That Ann Richards list is incomplete–
4. Always have the long form of your birth certificate on hand.”
I think Ann would concur
getalife
October 22nd, 2009
4:36 pm
They counted on the establishment to show some shame for their collapse.
They have no shame like the cons.
They are still gambling without regulations and it will collapse again.
Bosch
October 22nd, 2009
4:37 pm
The nuts get all bent out of shape when a poor family gets a couple hundred dollars a month for food, but defend these crooks all in the name of free market.
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
4:37 pm
when will first mention of “socialism” occur?
N.J.
October 22nd, 2009
4:37 pm
The executive compensation debacle we are now looking at is directly linked to the changes in the tax codes in 1986.
Used to be caps on how much a corporation could deduct in executive compensation which was based on a factor of the salaries of the lowest paid employees of the same company. Nothing prevented a CEO from taking a huge increase, the corporation could simply not deduct it as a “business expense”
Now a company can make a huge profit and avoid being taxed on it by giving bonuses and benefits with those profits.
Even the most recent Bush tax cuts are partly to blame because virtually all the sections that provided tax relief for the working class disappeared in 2005, the portions that benefited small businesses expired in 2006 and only those that provide the greatest benefits to the wealthy and large corporations are still in effect.
N.J.
October 22nd, 2009
4:40 pm
P.S. its the old dictum of “striking while the iron is hot”
There is not much sympathy towards billionaires who are now only fall into the class of multimillionaires because their net worth is now $999,999,999.99 .
Bosch
October 22nd, 2009
4:40 pm
jewcowboy,
SOCIALISM!!! There, I went ahead and got it out of the way.
Matilda
October 22nd, 2009
4:40 pm
Way to dispel the fancy-suit entitlement mentality!
“Yes, you got a degree, hustled some long hours, and networked your way into a cushy, lucrative position that allowed you to become consumeristically gluttonous beyond your wildest dreams at the expense of the suckers you duped, and smirk about it while sipping Macallan 30 in the Hamptons.” But you FAILED, as evidenced by your company whining to the government for a bailout. No, you are NOT entitled to continue living in the manner to which you became accustomed. Winners don’t ask for government handouts. Get over it, you overblown, self-aggrandizing LOSERS.”
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
4:40 pm
these corporate welfare queens, with their gold-plated cadillacs, using gov’t money to buy steaks and wine.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29326
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
October 22nd, 2009
4:41 pm
Well, the guvmint’s got no business butting into big business. I mean, why hold it against some bigshot just because he went broke and run his co. into the ground? It could happen to anybody. The guy ought to get a big raise and bonus just for agreeing to keep working there. I mean, it must be tough, facing all the laid-off workers and such and then having to go begging for guvmint help to boot. It would be enough to make you hate your $13,000 shower curtain and your two vacation houses on Long Island.
Now I know alot of you are big beer drinkers. If you bought a couple cases of PBR I hauled and found out 13 of the bottles in each case got broke during the hauling, you would just shut up about it. I know you wouldn’t go around screaming and yelling and wanting to cut my pay by 90%. And I know you wouldn’t want the guvmint to do it for you.
Anyhow, it’s got so bad I halfway expect to see a guvmint worker at the bottom of the commode the next time I need to go when Bookman or somebody talks about needing a tax increase.
So I say keep guvmint out of our business. We can go bust without any guvmint help.
Have a good night everybody.
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
4:41 pm
Bosch,
Thanks! It’s always the anticipation that is the toughest to handle.
Taxpayer
October 22nd, 2009
4:46 pm
Not only do the Republicans complain about imposing pay restrictions on these taxpayer funded clowns, they also complain about imposing a minimum hourly wage as well. It’s as though they yearn for the creation of a nationwide serfdom — anything to please their masters. Besides, their misery yearns company.
josef nix
October 22nd, 2009
4:47 pm
Call it Socialism if you want, but finally President Obama has done something which appears to be of substance.
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
4:49 pm
Maybe we can all get together and have a teabagger reunion to help these poor guys out. Fox News can organize it again.
Pogo
October 22nd, 2009
4:49 pm
Seems it took Obama and the Democrat’s poll numbers to tank before he would do anything about reigning in the TARP Execs compensation. He badly needs a distraction for the general public to cover how very badly he is mis-handling everything else. A Sacrificial lamb if you will. It is disturbing that he thinks that the general public is so unsophisticated as to not be able to see through what he is doing. Then again, judging from some of what I see here, he may be right. He and his brain (Pinky and the Brain?) Rham will sacrifice anything (Fox News, Bank Execs, Wall Street, the Chamber of Commerce, his own mother, etc., etc.,) to accomplish this but, in this case, it happened to be a good distraction. Now the TARP bank execs are in the cross hairs. It is ironic considering that he attended a Democratic Fund Raiser the other night wherein these very same executives (or their lacky’s) were in attendance. He was there asking them for political money but yet he is going to punish these bad boys? Obviously they didn’t pony up enough for his taste. He would love nothing more than to recycle TARP money back into the Democratic coffers. I wouldn’t doubt if Rham isn’t already working on a way to do this. This administration is going to go down as the most corrupt (and juvenile) in history. But really that is to be expected. It was born in the slime that is Chicago politics.
Truth
October 22nd, 2009
4:52 pm
Sooooo envious.
Yo'momma Obama
October 22nd, 2009
4:54 pm
“these corporate welfare queens, with their gold-plated cadillacs, using gov’t money to buy steaks and wine.”
what about the government worker queens using government money……like who’s paying for Barry and Michelle nightly shindig with their fancy dinners and entertainment? Who’s on the docket tonight? Barry White? Ludacris? Maybe Beyonce and Jayzee?
free entrepreneurs = crooks
goverment officials = extortionists
birds of a feather……
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Read My Lips mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
October 22nd, 2009
4:54 pm
at a time of growing public anger over the firms’ massive pay and bonuses.
I doubt if the public even cares.
I know the democrats do, check out the glee and frothy mouthed happiness, life’s little losers finally get their comeuppance on their straw man enemy of their beloved state, good for them.
Who will be their next target?
Barney Frank, who caused the whole entire financial meltdown, responsible for thousands of times more damage than any exec ever did, hahahahaha, yeah right.
Doing something like that would be the decent and moral thing to do, instead of inciting populist anger and animosity, but then again, liberals just aren’t decent people.
Kamchak
October 22nd, 2009
4:55 pm
josef
Gonna do the same thing as jewcowboy. From downstairs—the recommended Tokay Pinot Gris will suffice.
AF
October 22nd, 2009
4:57 pm
Pogo
I know you don’t like the Democrats, but every once in a while, even for the wrong reason, they do something right. The trick is to identify when they do. A simple “Thank you” would suffice.
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
5:00 pm
“what about the government worker queens using government money……like who’s paying for Barry and Michelle nightly shindig with their fancy dinners and entertainment? ”
And of course that gov’t subsidized housing as well. I mean, no President of the United States ever entertained at the White House, or spent $500,000 on plates.
Bud Wiser
October 22nd, 2009
5:03 pm
Not one of you whining morons wouldn’t trade bank accounts with any of those people you castigate, and you’d be proud to say you pulled it off.
Spare us all your hypocritical crap, and Jay, why not move on to something important, say, like Obama going 54 days now ignoring Gen. McCrystal’s recommendations, all the while appearing either impotent, or trying to see how this best serves his political interests.
Americans die while this idiot plays basketball and goes for photo ops…..is this the kind of President you morons really worship so deeply?
You all make a normal person sick.
Impeach Obama.
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
5:10 pm
“Not one of you whining morons wouldn’t trade bank accounts with any of those people you castigate, and you’d be proud to say you pulled it off.”
Proud is not a word that comes to mind when fleecing someone, like say the taxpayers. Of course, con artists and criminals would say that, so perhaps you onto something there.
Joey
October 22nd, 2009
5:11 pm
When you borrow from a loanshark, you must pay him back with interest or he owns you.
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
5:12 pm
“Impeach Obama.”
On what grounds pray tell?
“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
Hmmm… I don’t see “I’m a sore loser” or “I can’t handle not being the party in power” on that list.
Jay
October 22nd, 2009
5:13 pm
Bud, Obama has already committed more than twice as many troops to Afghanistan as Bush did while he was pretending that all was well and grand in old Afghanistan. Bush had seven years to fix the problem and didn’t so your anger and bile is, as usual, misplaced.
In fact, it’s downright cartoonish.
Matilda
October 22nd, 2009
5:14 pm
Bud, just because YOU wish you were like those gold plated crooks does not mean the rest of us wish it. Yes, many would appreciate more money than we have now, but many of us are grateful for the blessings that money cannot buy, and take joy in our children, relationships, and the lives we lead in our modest homes. How sad for you that you’re so joyless.
And since you know so much about war, then you knew back in 2003 that pulling troops out of Afg to Iraq was a bad friggin idea, and would leave US forces with NO GOOD WAY OUT. Didn’t you? Were you this angry about the mess back then, or did you just discover this year that you care about the lives of American soldiers?
josef nix
October 22nd, 2009
5:14 pm
Since Normal’s not here yet…
“I’d kinda like to be the president…”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2avyzmQKMvU
K’chak
Egészségére!
Brad Steel
October 22nd, 2009
5:15 pm
These seven “financial firms” would be better described as wards of the state. Feinberg did what he was hired to do.
For the rest of the executives who under-perform their pay, the shareholder and board actions seem to be ineffective and impotent. It’s a shame, but this is a problem that Obama will only influence by indirect leadership. They won’t get involve in companies that aren’t pitiable wards of the state.
Kamchak
October 22nd, 2009
5:16 pm
Hmmm… I don’t see “I’m a sore loser” or “I can’t handle not being the party in power” on that list.
Check again. It’s right next to “But he doesn’t have the long form” reason.
FrankLeeDarling
October 22nd, 2009
5:17 pm
look’s good so far,Obama seems to be slowly cleaning house
josef nix
October 22nd, 2009
5:19 pm
JAY
“In fact, it’s downright cartoonish.”
It would be if the body bags weren’t still arriving, carefully kept from public view…old whine in new bottles. Egészségére!
Kamchak
October 22nd, 2009
5:20 pm
josef
skål
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Read My Lips mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
October 22nd, 2009
5:20 pm
Saying that Bush caused all the problems in Afghanistan isn’t cartoonish?
Jay
October 22nd, 2009
5:21 pm
Bud writes:
“Americans die while this idiot plays basketball and goes for photo ops…..is this the kind of President you morons really worship so deeply?”,/em>
Or as George Bush put it, “I call on all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Now watch this drive!”
Of course, that was golf, not basketball, which no doubt makes it OK.
Jay
October 22nd, 2009
5:23 pm
Reporter, if anybody said that Bush caused all the problems in Afghanistan, it would indeed be cartoonish.
Did anybody say that?
If so, please quote the fool.
josef nix
October 22nd, 2009
5:23 pm
K’chak
BTW…Thanks for the lessons in diacritical marks!
Taxpayer
October 22nd, 2009
5:24 pm
In place of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America,” we now have the GOP’s “Book of Lamentations.” hehehe
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
5:25 pm
Kamchak,
Is that right above “make all sorts of stuff up and throw it to see if anything sticks”?
Because that one seems real popular.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Ate Up With Envy mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
October 22nd, 2009
5:26 pm
Just another mess for the Republicans to mop up when they get back in office in the next few years, that Palin is gonna be a busy little girl.
Kamchak
October 22nd, 2009
5:28 pm
josef
As much as I would like to take credit, I must needs confess that I have to open google translator when you start posting. I just copied and pasted.
Agnes
October 22nd, 2009
5:29 pm
To all of you Liberal Democrat types out there; after 8 years of wringing you hands and whining and crying and bitching about Bush you really have earned the priviledge of gloating and drooling over President Obama. Really.
But will you get your 8 years???? I know you twitch about that now and then. Be careful not to develop a tic.
josef nix
October 22nd, 2009
5:29 pm
Well, I’m glad he shoots a few hoops to unwind, smokes a few cigs to calm down, takes his wife for a night on the town and shafts the corporate welfare queens…
Matilda
October 22nd, 2009
5:29 pm
“Now watch this drive!” Thanks for that classic Dubya moment, Mr. Bookman.
Kamchak
October 22nd, 2009
5:29 pm
jewcowboy
Yep–that’s the place.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Ate Up With Envy mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
October 22nd, 2009
5:31 pm
I found the fool!
Bush did while he was pretending that all was well and grand in old Afghanistan. Bush had seven years…..
Now remember, Afghanistan was all sweetness and light until Bushie invaded Iraq and took his eyes off the ball (don’t make me go to the archives, please.)
So sometime during those seven years of evil, that you clearly delineated^^, Bush must have caused “the problems,” no?
pat
October 22nd, 2009
5:32 pm
You dance with the devil the devil is in control.
AF
October 22nd, 2009
5:33 pm
Brad Steele said: “For the rest of the executives who under-perform their pay, the shareholder and board actions seem to be ineffective and impotent. It’s a shame, but this is a problem that Obama will only influence by indirect leadership. They won’t get involve in companies that aren’t pitiable wards of the state.”
Should the federal government get involved? I mean, Congress could pass a law that requires all corporate charters to allow stock holders to vote on executive pay. I don’t know if it would help because each share gets one vote. Those with the most shares win. That means one rich person with lots of shares has lots of votes.
I remember reading of some pension funds that have participated in calling for stock holder approval of executive pay packages. It could be there is enough momentum now to make effect a change in attittude about executive pay.
Taxpayer
October 22nd, 2009
5:34 pm
Come on, Andy. Deliver, for a change.
getalife
October 22nd, 2009
5:36 pm
pat,
The devil is giving motivational speeches for 19 bucks.
josef nix
October 22nd, 2009
5:38 pm
K’chak–
Well, I DO have to do something with all that schooling!
AGNES
“I know you twitch about that now and then. Be careful not to develop a tic.!”
Be still my jerking knee!
Normal
October 22nd, 2009
5:39 pm
Josef, your 5:14, great song, better attitude…
MR. PRESIDENT, BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW! HERE’S WHY…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8C4AIFgUg&feature=related
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Ate Up With Envy mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
October 22nd, 2009
5:39 pm
Am I not the man?
The programme of the provisional revolutionary government should also provide for the immediate granting of real and full freedom to the nationalities oppressed by the tsarist monster. A free Russia has been born. The programme should provide for the eight-hour working day, which the workers are already “seizing”, and for other urgent measures to curb capitalist exploitation.. Lastly, the programme must necessarily include transfer of all the land to the peasants- V. I. Lenin Our Tasks and the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies 1905
Herrrre we go again, same old stuff again.
Joey
October 22nd, 2009
5:46 pm
To all the companies that embraced the bailouts and loans:
When you are at the poker table and don’t know who the sucker is, it’s you.
josef nix
October 22nd, 2009
5:50 pm
Normal @ 5:39
How soon we forget! Say whatever else we will about Ima Gonna and the Village Idiot, they learned ONE lesson from that fiasco, keep the cameras away…
Pokey
October 22nd, 2009
5:50 pm
Riddle me this JB…what qualifies Feinberg or for that matter you to render a judgement as to what is “fair”??
Why not take it all???
And your post yesterday about the need to raise taxes was a joke. Use a financial crisis to justify criminal levels of “stmulus”(pork). Viola…now we need to raise taxes because we have huge deficits. Sel-fulfilling prophecy.
Normal
October 22nd, 2009
5:50 pm
Guess what I’m havin’ for supper tonight…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE
Normal
October 22nd, 2009
5:52 pm
Josef: “keep the cameras away…”
We need the camera’s there to record everything. Then maybe, just maybe, people will wake up and realize that there has to be a better way, just hopin’
Normal
October 22nd, 2009
5:55 pm
Whiner, this you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NzFJxX8yoY&feature=related
Kamchak
October 22nd, 2009
5:58 pm
Hey getalife
Was it you who created an avatar several months ago and called it Andy?
pat
October 22nd, 2009
6:00 pm
So if you get hand outs from the government, then they have the right to meddle….Fair enough…So if the government is supplying you with healthcare, they can then decide what behaviors you can engage if they affect your health. So if you smoke, they can make you quit or deny you, if you are fat, they can make you lose weight or hang you out to dry, if you engage in risky sexual behavior, they can make you change or not cover you…Yup, sound like freedom to me.
Thomas Jefferson had a lot to say on this sort of thing….here are some quotes:
“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.”
And …
“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.”
And…
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
And..
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
First it’s the corps who took a hand out, next it’s you. Hand outs make you slaves. Put your hands in your pockets and do for yourself for a change.
pat
October 22nd, 2009
6:02 pm
Everything you get from the government comes with conditions.
danjonglee
October 22nd, 2009
6:03 pm
I feel much better about my life now that these foolish men have had their pay cuts. We need every single citizen to be a selfless collectivist eager to toil without compensation, for the sheer joy of toiling. Our Govt. should allow small amounts of greed and selfishness to create wealth for redistribution for progressive goals…..
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
6:04 pm
Pokey,
As essentially goverment employees while they continue to wallow in TARP funds, I would say its up to HOUR to set the pay scale.
Fienberg is the head of HR, and therefore sets their payscale. Fair pay for fair work.
Of course they can always quit if they are unhappy. I hear jobs in the financial industry are very easy to come by now.
pat
October 22nd, 2009
6:05 pm
rather than get paid, we should all put our money in a common pot and just take what we need when we need it. Because that works so well.
Pokey
October 22nd, 2009
6:07 pm
Again, what qualifies you, Bookman, and Feinberg to render judgement?? I could care less what Feinberg’s job title is. What in BHO’s background qualifies merits our trust that he has any clue what he’s doinf re: the economy?
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
6:08 pm
Pat,
But the health insurance industry gives you what you pay for with no conditions huh?
getalife
October 22nd, 2009
6:10 pm
Kamchak,
This one?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_UQPUzwdX51o/SuDYHr_SkRI/AAAAAAAAANs/LsyVIS5MdEs/s1600-h/Wingnut.jpg
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
6:10 pm
That should be HR not HOUR. Stupid blackberry auto complete.
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
6:12 pm
Pokey,
Maybe the fact he is the legally elected President of the United States of America. Elected by a majority of the voters. That gives him a little street cred I think. Even on Wall Street.
Angry Black Man
October 22nd, 2009
6:13 pm
If your company got taxpayer money, why should your CEO make more than the CEO of the U.S.? I’m glad that they decided to cut the pay of those who still owe the Gov’t money. My only question is what the hell took so long? That should have been a stipulation of the TARP money from the start. That would have definitely made a difference. Either people would have ate crow and took the money, or another businessperson would have had an opportunity to replace those who thought they were infalliable with a new business.
josef nix
October 22nd, 2009
6:15 pm
jewcowboy–HR/HOUR–I thought it was your Freudian slip showing…
DoggoneGA
October 22nd, 2009
6:15 pm
“That should have been a stipulation of the TARP money from the start.”
Sure it should have…but you have to remember who passed that bill. They didn’t even have any reporting requirements to keep track of what they did with that money…they’re going to require actually accountability from the execs? I don’t think so.
Curious Observer
October 22nd, 2009
6:16 pm
Only in corporate America could an executive lose $100 billion in a year, seek a government bailout in order to stay solvent, and then qualify for a huge salary increase and a bonus for such work. Maybe there needs to be a federal law that salary increases and bonuses cannot be paid unless they come from profits of the company. This is sheer lunacy! Why are people defending such practices?
Sunshine and Thunder
October 22nd, 2009
6:17 pm
Jay
Thanks for reminding us how it’s everyone’s business what somebody else earns in salary and bonuses. When are you going to publish your total compensation? Until then you have no credibility. You said it yourself, these guys’ pay scale isn’t set by the free market, they set it themselves. You obviously know how to do that so we’d like to make sure you aren’t being overpaid. It looks like the government is going to have to bail out most big inner city newspapers. You should disclose ahead of time so we can all pat you on the back for being so darned honest.
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
6:17 pm
Pat,
Perhaps we should just do another round of tax cuts for wealthiest 2% and some more deregulation. That seems to have worked well.
Silly Glass-Stegall Act. What were those people going through the Great Depression thinking.
getalife
October 22nd, 2009
6:18 pm
Jay got a bailout sunshine?
DoggoneGA
October 22nd, 2009
6:19 pm
“Thanks for reminding us how it’s everyone’s business what somebody else earns in salary and bonuses”
So…are we to take it that you are perfectly comfortable with them taking BILLIONS in OUR money, and then paying it to themselves in huge pay and bonuses, for basically, running their companies into the ground?
Have you got an extra hundred thou I can borrow?
josef nix
October 22nd, 2009
6:20 pm
ABM
“My only question is what the hell took so long.”
That’s mine, too, and I would like to have an answer to that one, but, better late than never as the old folks say…
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
6:21 pm
Josef nix,
I guess government is like the oldest profession that charges by the HOUR.
Angry Black Man
October 22nd, 2009
6:23 pm
Sunshine
I don’t really think Jay is worried about what everybody makes. Only those execs who’s companies took taxpayer money. That’s a huge difference. If you can’t see that, then that’s probably part of the reason we’re in this mess.
AF
October 22nd, 2009
6:25 pm
Pokey at 5:50
No. We don’t need to raise taxes just because of “stimulus pork” We also need to raise taxes after years of fighting a war while trying to cut taxes. The Bush deficit is no small joke, either.
But understand I understand. Both Dems and Pubs have to take the blame for spending money they aren’t willing to tax.
josef nix
October 22nd, 2009
6:26 pm
Doggone @ 6:15
“.when the money keeps rolling out, you don’t keep books; you can tell you’ve done well by all the happy grateful looks; accountants only slow things down, figures get in the way,,.”
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
6:26 pm
Josef nix,
Hate crimes legislation passed the Senate. Obama promised to sign it by the end of the month.
Dusty
October 22nd, 2009
6:29 pm
Awww ;Bookman fools you fools everytime.. You libs think he’s found something ’cause he’s all excited. Then you find it is all the same ol’ suit he wears all the time. No longer does he use “Bush did it!” and scowl. No sir! Now it is “Obama did it!” with a big smile.
And cartoonish???? Even Luckovich has had a rude awakeneing and is no longer “kind” to Obama. Now Obama gets the big ears, the crazy action and the goofy looks that were once awarded to Bush daily. I mean, if LUCKOVICH can see the light, is Bookman far behind? Yep. Way behind.
So government is going to manage the stock market. big business, salaries, etc?? What next? YOUR SALARY?? See?? I didn’t say socialism but COMMUNISM sounds nice. Give it a thought, you worker bees. You are going to be next!!
I’ll be back after dinner to see if Josef is president and Normal VICE president (he’s full of it!). If josef’s twitchy leg keeps going, I won’t vote for him. It might interfere with reading the teleprompters. You just never know…
DoggoneGA
October 22nd, 2009
6:29 pm
“while trying to cut taxes”
Trying?
josef nix
October 22nd, 2009
6:30 pm
jewcowboy–
“Hate crimes legislation passed the Senate. Obama promised to sign it by the end of the month.”
Long overdue and much needed, but still, in my opinion, just so much window dressing.
jt
October 22nd, 2009
6:31 pm
A sincere public announcement!!!! Threat level orange.
Violent crime rates usually spike around 72-96 hours after huge drug busts. Junkies get mad when their supply is interrupted. There has been a big narcotic bust in the metro area.
While President Obama struts and ignores our southern boarder, and liberals cheer and gloat over a few bank execs, and the DEA and FBI and ATF divide up piles of cellophane money, weapons, and drugs while fighting for TV exposure,
the concerned, cautious citizens of the metro area should be checking their windows, doors, and perimeters.
The bank exec pay is but a drop of water in your paycheck compared to the ocean of costs because of the neglect of our southern borders.
Whatever floats your boat. Be careful.
Hard Right Hook
October 22nd, 2009
6:31 pm
Well, I suppose it’s OK for the “Czar” to tell CEO’s how much they can make in a year. Unconstitutional, but OK.
Wait till the salary Czar starts telling op-ed column writers how much they can make a year. Then you’ll hear some screaming.
Since most of you are so hung up on the minimum wage, I just know that you’ll agree willingly when the Czar tells YOU that’s your new wage.
josef nix
October 22nd, 2009
6:36 pm
Hey Dusty–I’m being kind tonight…got my teleprompter turned off…!
AF
October 22nd, 2009
6:36 pm
DoggoneGA
okay. So I said it wrong. “…while cutting taxes.” And for the good reason that cutting taxes would create jobs and increase wealth. Only, of course, it only created low paying jobs, with little likelihood of health insurance or upward mobility, and median incomes dropped and wealth became as concentrated as it was back in 1920. But, that is the free market and the American Way, so there. Oh, and don’t forget the benefits of lack of regulation and deregulation.
DoggoneGA
October 22nd, 2009
6:38 pm
“Well, I suppose it’s OK for the “Czar” to tell CEO’s how much they can make in a year. Unconstitutional, but OK”
Isn’t amazing how good the conned are at leaving out the really relevent information? Talk about “cherry picking” information.
Hey, HRH (and it does NOT mean “Her Royal Highness”) – here’s what you SHOULD have said: “Well, I suppose it’s OK for the “Czar” to tell CEO’s – WHOSE COMPANIES HAD TO TAKE TARP MONEY TO KEEP FROM GOING BELLY UP…how much they can make in a year.”
“Unconstitutional…”
How about some proof for that?
DoggoneGA
October 22nd, 2009
6:39 pm
“Oh, and don’t forget the benefits of lack of regulation and deregulation”
Trust me…I don’t!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Ate Up With Envy mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
October 22nd, 2009
6:39 pm
Am I not the man?
About three million piculs of unhusked rice are sent out yearly in exchange for necessary consumer goods, or an average of one picul a head of the three million population; it cannot, surely, be less than this. But who is handling this trade? It is handled entirely by the merchants who exploit us ruthlessly in the process. Last year they bought unhusked rice from the peasants in Wanan and Taiho Counties at fifty cents a picul and sold it in Kanchow for four yuan, making a sevenfold profit. Take another instance. Every year our three million people need about nine million yuan worth of salt and six million yuan worth of cotton cloth. Needless to say, this fifteen million yuan trade in salt and cloth has been entirely in the hands of the merchants; we have done nothing about it. The exploitation by the merchants is really enormous. For instance, they go to Meihsien and buy salt at one yuan for seven catties, and then sell it in our areas at one yuan for twelve ounces. Is this not shocking profiteering? We can no longer ignore such a state of affairs, and from now on we must handle this trade ourselves. Our department of trade with outside areas must make a great effort in this connection. – PAY ATTENTION TO ECONOMIC WORK by MAO TSE-TUNG (Mao Zedong) August 20, 1933
Ah, yes.
Angry Black Man
October 22nd, 2009
6:41 pm
Dusty
I feel if a company has to use taxpayer money, they should be subject to the same payscale of the gov’t. It will either stop the bailouts, or stop the greed.
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
6:48 pm
Josef nix,
Window dressing possibly, but unfathomable 2 years ago.
jewcowboy
October 22nd, 2009
6:50 pm
Since when is setting a gov’t employees salary communism?