Carl Icahn Says 'Enough!' to Overpaid, Underperforming CEOs

Icahn: Beware Good Golfers

The person who moves up the ladder to CEO, Icahn told Stossel, is more of a politician than a manager.

"He doesn't make waves, because if you make waves they throw you out."

When asked if he objected to successful CEOs being paid high salaries, Icahn said "absolutely not."

"Let him make his money if the shareholders are making the money," Icahn said. "But don't pay him these huge bonuses, these huge severances."

Executives should be fairly compensated, Icahn said. "It's insane to pay somebody 700 times what the average worker gets."

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John Stossel's Web Site

"By and large, the guys on those boards are businessmen, and they should know how to hold these guys accountable, and know what numbers to look at. You don't go in and say, 'You ought to do this, this and this to run the company.' You say, 'Hey, you're not doing as well as your peers, how come?'"

Icahn added that "Hey, by the way, you don't have to be playing golf every day.'"

"Most of them aren't playing golf all the time," Stossel countered.

"You'd be amazed," Icahn replied. "I have a rule that if a guy has a five handicap or lower, I don't want him."

To fight back against dysfunctional corporate boards, Icahn has started United Shareholders of America, a grassroots effort to empower shareholders. Icahn believes that if enough shareholders join the group on his Web site The Icahn Report, he can be their voice to change state and federal rules that make it difficult to vote out entrenched boards.

"This whole thing could be stopped if the shareholders stood up and went to Washington," Icahn said. "Even the senators and congressmen I talk to want to do something, but they want to know the public's behind it."

Icahn believes the current financial crisis will not be helped if President-elect Barack Obama continues to pump money into the economy when he takes office. "That's not the answer. It's a short-term fix. It's like somebody dying and you give them a little morphine."

"Unless you change the system," Icahn told Stossel, "we will not be able to compete in the future, one, and we're going to keep having the exact headaches we're having today."