As a taxpayer, you're never represented at the table when these negotiations take place. Someone should get together a method not to pay taxes carried out as civil disobedience....... http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=azo7aySdpFHw&refer=home
Did you consider the possibility that the overpaid employees negotiated their compensation packages when they were hired or put in their current postion and are legally owed the money?
How can they be "legally" owed the money? IMHO any so-called legality surrounding this issue should be thrown out the window. Of course that won't happen. Why would thieves (money printers) give back the money they stole from the slaves, i mean taxpayer? Please excuse my ignorance
The vast majority of the overpaid employees on Wall Street have compensation contracts that specify their salary and bonus and are legally binding on employee and employer. New York State also has laws to tend to be much more favorable to employees than employers. Any Wall Street employer that tries to renege on an employee compensation contract would be facing steep legal fees and near certainty of losing in a New York courtroom. Wall Street employers are free to negotiate new compensation contracts for the future, but they are stuck with the current ones.
IMHO, bonuses are paid on a job well done. Bonuses should not accompany failures, especially when tax payers' money are involved. PA
Legal or not, to qualify to tap public funds executive compensation and bonus limitations SHOULD take precedence and should have been a condition to get those funds. To pay excessive bonus with public money where otherwise the employee might have been SOL is a SCAM OF THE HIGHEST ORDER.. Paulson should be ashamed.
True - the salary may be fixed, but BONUS is per performance. There was an old computer game called Balance of Power that had you face off against the old Soviet Union in nuclear strategy. For kicks some of us wanted to see what the graphics looked like when the missiles were launched (a la "War Games"). The screen went blank and the message popped up "No graphics. We don't reward failure."
I a agree with Jeb on this pretty much. It's sickening how this has played out, the foundation of our competitive economy demanded the huge compensation packages awarded many of these execs. Perhaps the compensation committees at these firms should be held more accountable, but the fact is, these guys had binding contracts with these payouts. These payouts were part of their negotiations when the signed on in the first place.