Sep 24, 2008 9:55am
Rips In the Golden Parachute. Should CEO Pay Be Clipped?
EmailThe debate over whether or not the US Government should spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out Wall Street seems in some ways to be hinging on a simple question: Should limits be set on the paychecks of the executives who steered these companies into this mess? Should the government get involved with how much a PRIVATE company pays it’s officers? One thing to chew on: Last year, Wall Street’s five biggest firms — Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns — paid a record $39 billion in bonuses to themselves.
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Puncture those parachutes. Give each exec 5-10 million. Make them sell all but two reasonable houses, sell all but two or three cars. Then the government will distribute the rest among us minions who have been sc$#@ed up the wazoo.
Posted by: jennylynn | September 24, 2008, 10:05 am 10:05 am
No CEO in America should earn higher than the President Of the United States at $400,000.00. Period and the clowns in professional sports should not either. Then mabey some of us could afford newer cars and assundry other items and afford to go to a resonably priced ball game or movie and afford drinks and eats while there.
Posted by: ronnieraygun | September 24, 2008, 10:11 am 10:11 am
David,
How much of that was paid to McCain’s top advisors? 2million? 15,000 /month?
Posted by: jozy | September 24, 2008, 10:12 am 10:12 am
Trickle down economics has proven itself to bew a failure as money never trickles down its vaccuumed to the top always, like a hoover vaccuum.
Posted by: Ernest T Bass | September 24, 2008, 10:13 am 10:13 am
David: So McCain spent 2 years doing nothing while the situation got worse? And now it comes out that McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, was being paid $15k a month up until just last month by Freddie Mac (of course, standard McCain operating procedure, Davis had said he had nothing to do with FM for years). Did McCain support his campaign being run by a paid off lobbiest, or is McCain just very bad at picking people to lead his organization? Either way, is that who we want as president?
As for the bill McCain was speaking of, the house version passed 331-90 (Dems supported it just like Reps). The Senate bill (S.190) was recommended by the committee with minor amendments but never made it to a floor vote. Same fate as hundreds of bills a year that do not have a competent legislator to champion them.
Posted by: jhw539 | September 24, 2008, 10:14 am 10:14 am
Excuse me… all of the current CEO’s should be fired. They obviously are crooks. If any of us carried on business like them we would be out the door and no severence package!If you are fired for misconduct ( as they have showed happened) you can’t even collect unemployment. In China they just shoot them. Watch what will happen to CEO’s that put out tainted milk bet they won’t be around for much longer.
Posted by: cissy55 | September 24, 2008, 10:23 am 10:23 am
Fire them all!Parachutes for poor performance, where do I sign up?
Posted by: cissy55 | September 24, 2008, 10:26 am 10:26 am
Earnest – I take it it is now nighttime in America. LOL I personally believe in a trickle up theory. Start bailing out the little guys and anything left over should be used to off set this massive bill we tax payers are gonna get. Give the top guys a few million (5 or so), let them keep two or three reasonable homes and two or therr cars and bail us out instead.
Posted by: jennylynn | September 24, 2008, 10:27 am 10:27 am
Anybody find it ironic that the sleezy CEO in Wallstreet is named Gecko. (A geko is a relative of a lizard I believe.)
Posted by: jennylynn | September 24, 2008, 10:32 am 10:32 am
So let me get this straight. Middle class taxpayers have always subsidized ghetto welfare and now we’re being asked to provide corporate welfare. All while we’re losing our homes due to the mortgage crisis (by greed of corporate CEOs), commuting costs skyrocket (by greed of corporate CEOs), declines in retirement 401K (by greed of corporate CEOs), and laughable savings account interest (by greed of corporate CEOs). And we’re supposed to approve that these same CEOs that caused the decline in the traditional American lifestyle continue to get their obscene bonuses in a bailout program? Why is this even a discussion issue?
Posted by: Its the CEO, stupid | September 24, 2008, 10:46 am 10:46 am
The Answer to Golden Parachutes is a Simple Tax Law change.
Any serverence Package greater than the person’s one year basic salary will be taxed at a rate of 99%
These guys should be able to find other employment in less than a year.
Posted by: Jim | September 28, 2008, 11:29 am 11:29 am