Thank Goodness that the bailout package is going to be approved. It is not only going to protect the banking business from clogging up totally but also has potentials of ending out at a profit to both government and the taxpayers. More importantly, it will limit the golden parachutes and other golden showers given the high hats of the companies. This encourages them to take high risks and bend regulations and even in the case of bankruptcy these high hats walk away with millions. Folks in Washington and Wall Street should not take the bailout as the end of the problem and solution reached. It is long way to the clean up or even partial clean up of the mess created by the power holders and middle class tax payers end up taking extra burden. Pelosi should under stand that words are said very easy, only time will tell how well they keep upto the utterrings.
Why should the cashiers at Costco determine how much the CEO is worth? The shareholders (ie owners of the company) and the customers are the ones who should and do determine that. Not unions and employees, not you, not me, and certainly not the socialists in DC. If someone works exceptionally hard and provides an exception service, why should he or she not be exceptionally paid for doing it? Some people here know that for about the last year I have been dealing with cancer. The surgeon I have used is excellent. He has given me his home phone number and urged me to call any time, day or night. He has called me in the evenings, from his home while he is not on call, to be sure I am ok. Two months ago I had a suture coagulate (not sure on the spelling of either of those) coagulate to the second most important artery in my leg. I was changing it at 3am and bled terribly, blood sprayed the wall over 10 feet away, I nearly bled to death (my hemoglobal was just over 2 when I got to the ER) because I thought I could fix it myself. My mom was staying w/ me due to having had surgery and she came down to see me laying on the floor, very weak and not moving. She called 9-11 and the surgeon at home. Again he was not on call. We live in a rural area where ambulance service is slow (45 minutes or so). Dr Vanderberg showed up with in 5 minutes and told my mom that we needed to drive to the hospital because the ambulance would not get there fast enough. My mom has a small car, so he told her to drive his new Jeep while he stayed in the back and kept me from dying on the way to the hospital. I'm sure I ruined his seats. So the question is this: Why should a person like Dr Vanderberg, who provides exceptional service above and beyond anything he is obligated to provide, not be paid every single penny he can make? You can say well he saved your life, a CEO is only running a company I suppose, but the truth is by this time 5 years from now I wont still be alive, so he has only delayed what is going to happen anyway. In the case of a CEO, he creates wealth, which people spend in the economy, which they donate to Universities, to theatres and other arts, to the cancer research that I hope might save my life...you can not argue that a good CEO does not create an incredible amount of value.
Ron Emannuel: ".......markets knowing all is a flawed ideology. It is now shown it is flawed, and what it can (reap). He's probably got a pocket full of cash from the Street, now he's going to bury them.
I agree with you if we had the perfect world. The problem here is the system is corrupt. The people on theses boards are all connected and they hire each other based on favors and friendship rather than knowledge and know how. It's kind of like the nobles in ancient Rome. No one become a CEO based on hard work and merit anymore, it's who you know. The shareholders are no longer in control, the pay is rediculous, you run a company into the ground and get paid hundreds of millions. I think one good solution with these CEO stock bonuses would be that they get the stock options for say 10 years in the future. This would make them think about the long term health of the company rather than only the short term profits.
Idiots in Washington. The party has started in the Private Equity, M&A activity. Party has started in the "Energy Sector", well hell has been going on for a year now. Fuck the Public Sector and the "Public Companies" being traded. That party might have ended but there are plenty of other parties going on. The stock market isn't the only party in town, neither is RE. However, the party in RE is about to re-start as the those who are liquided are chomping on the bit to start to pick up Hard Assets. The real life Monopoly Game is about to kick off, this is gona be great.
I know youv all been waiting for a practical common sense solution, to fund this economic clusterfuc investment rescue package. No worry's It seems the pentagon cant find not only osama binladen, but trillions of dollar's as well. All the pentagon has to do, is wander over to the lostNfound gather up a trillion and sling it over too wall street, then replace the discount window to a circus fun house mirror. Problem solved
Actually the Board of Directors of a corp determine the salary, and too often they are in bed with the CEO at the expense of the TRUE owners - the shareholders. Barney Frank wanted to address that recently by introducing a bill that gave shareholders greater power over salaries. Don't know what happened with it.
You are 100% right and I hope your 100% wrong. While in some peoples mind it may not be a perfect system The free market is the best method overall and in long term as well to decide what someone should be paid. Oh how great it would be to change our system so that those that feel they are worth more or just as smart could make the same level of income as the top earners. We all know the college professor or the elected official that think they are unfairly left behind in the income level but in the end they are usually wrong. On the other hand I sure do hope to see your thoughtful and well articulated posts five years and longer from now sir.