Paying $18.6 billion in bonuses is shameful, but we don’t want the money back. From now on, you have to cap pay at half-a-million a year, but, don’t worry, after the taxpayers save your asses, you can buy the company back from us for pennies on the dollar and be even richer.
President Barack Obama capped salaries for senior executives at financial institutions receiving government assistance at $500,000, the U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday.
Additional pay must be in restricted stock that vests after the government has been repaid with interest.
Treasury issued a new set of guidelines on executive compensation after reports of lavish bonuses, extravagant entertaining and even expensive office redecoration have surfaced at institutions that received billions in bailout money. But the new rules will not apply retroactively to existing investments or programs already announced.
“These measures are designed to ensure that public funds are directed only toward the public interest in strengthening our economy by stabilizing our financial system and not toward inappropriate private gain,” a Treasury release said.
via Obama caps salaries for financial execs receiving government funds – Dayton Business Journal: [1].
How about real regulation? Why not cap salaries as a multiplier of lowest paid worker? Add a kicker of a reduction in salary of the CEO for any reduction in work force. Hire more- get paid more, fire- take the heat. Until these policies actually have some sort of relationship to actual corporate governance, this is nothing but a smoke-and-mirrors PR ploy.
Ya’ know what 500 grand gets you? A rookie shortstop who bats .219, hits no homers and commits 30 errors. Or a third string quarterback who wears a ballcap, carries a clipboard and you hope never takes a snap. It is also a figure such figures as George Clooney, JayZ and Madonna wouldn’t get out of bed for. And now the same government that can’t do anything right has decided ceo’s with thier cajones in the vise should make half of what a daily lottery winner makes. Good thing President Obama was on the Harvard Law Review, because he sure wasn’t in the Economics Review……….
You conveniently forgot to mention that all of the celebs you mention are making lots of money, not going bankrupt, like the banks being bailed out. Big difference.
And remember the golden rule: he who has all the gold, makes the rules.
OK Icee, where are the Economics Review people working? Wall Street? How has that been working out for us? We elect the wealthy because they get the press and they travel in the same circles, not recognizing that the decisions they are making are totally wrong. They do not understand the data, because they are immune to the consequences, at least so far.
Black Bush (Cheney) is apparently no different than the rest.
“We will not apologize for our way of life….” – Barak Obama
“The American way of life is non-negotiable”. – Dick Cheney
It appears Obama grew up idolizing these people and does not want to change the game. Well he is no FDR, he is Hoover and I see no FDR on the horizon, only, Hitlers, Mussolinis and Stalins.
I wonder if America has the guts to face the hard truths?
You’ve been watching the Daily Show, haven’t you, Greg? It hurt Jon Stewart to do it, but he did what you just did, taking snippets of Obama’s inaugural address and comparing them to things Bush had said.
Oh well, at least Obama is able of forming complete sentences without mangling the English language.
And he at least says the right things about LGBT issues. I’ll take a Hoover who commits publicly to this (http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/civil_rights/) over a W who lets his party demonize queers as a threat to the very fabric of our society.
Rarely, when I was in US and never since I have been in Bucharest.
LGBT issues take a backseat to discussing economic issues. Only in a thriving economy do we have the leisure to discuss “demonization” of one group or another. I an concerned that in an economic downturn, many groups will be singled out for “blame” and Obama is not getting it done. Timmy G. as Treasury is just trying to bailout his friends and Obama is allowing it. Expose the losses, Nationalize the banks and get on with it.
I do find it intriguing that the real estate bubble was discussed at lunch in Bucharest; the American experience of declining housing prices and being under water is really a world wide story. The yeast are getting to edge of the Petrie dish and we shall see if we are humans or animals. But hey if all you had to worry about was being unshackled from sexual discrimination then your dream of Obama came true; sorry I had higher expectations.
All employees of Premiere Health Partners, the company that owns the “Regions Leader”, got the expected letter last week. All raises for 2009 have been capped.
I don’t know if CEO Mary Boosalis bonus was capped. I know they haven’t capped their spending on the $30,000.00 potted palms that line the entrance during the 4 tropical months of the Ohio climate, but I do know they sure as hell haven’t capped the increase in the insurance premiums, the parking, and new mandatory uniforms and shoes.
Adding insult to injury, the raise cap letter was preceded by an email a few days earlier informing the employees that not only was the cafeteria raising it’s prices but the employee discount was being discontinued.
When will the average worker get a break?
The American Dream is more like a nightmare.
Looks like the American Dream was just a blip where the US lived large due to cheap energy and having an unscathed industrial economy coming out of WWII.
University of Chicago economics (religion) and boomer greed pissed it away.
Pick your friends in a community and prey on the enablers, do not let them manipulate the truth.
The extent of boomer greed is unfathomable in many ways. What a can of worms that is. And let’s not forget the ridiculous greed, social bias and laughable residential and business development championed by this generation: sprawl.
Was the greatest generation really that great? No.
Driving throughout this area of the country over the past 20-30 years, you could often see RVs with the cliche’ bumper sticker “We’re spending our kids inheritance.”
It wasn’t a joke.