Posted on 09/29/2008 4:33:38 PM PDT by jazusamo
Congress is never more ridiculous than when it tries to look like it is serious.
In the midst of a major national financial crisis, what was one of the first things Congress zeroed in on? The pay of Chief Executive Officers of financial institutions.
If all those CEOs agreed to work for nothing, that would not be enough to lower the bailout money by one percent. Anyone who was really serious would start with the 99 percent and let the one percent come later, if at all.
But however insignificant the pay of CEOs is economically, it is big stuff politically. Whatever the shortcomings of the Democrats, they are consistent in their message, and class envy is a great part of that message.
People who say that they cannot understand how CEOs in general get so many millions of dollars seem not to realize what a trivial thing they are saying. Most people do not understand most things. But that is no reason to have national policy guided by their ignorance.
I do not understand one percent of what there is to understand about the very computer on which these words are being written— nor about the Internet on which these words will be transmitted to the syndicate that distributes this column. I don't have a clue about how a syndicate is run, much less how much someone should be paid for running it.
What really sets some people off is the fact that a CEO who has mismanaged some corporation into losing billions of dollars is rewarded with a severance package worth millions.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Bump
Very nice.
Like always...Sowell is on-target...a direct hit!
He rarely misses IMHO!
SARAH CRUSHES BIDEN on BAILOUT
Sarah, I’m expecting you to please face the camera & speak directly to the American people. Please say as follows (with my permission)
Joe Biden is not part of the problem, he is the problem.
Do you honestly think all those same 30 plus year hacks are going to conduct proper hearings on all their buddies and anything is going to happen??
America needs a true outside reformer to clean his mess up.
Sarah, while you’re at it, please ask Joe a favor for me.
My 80 yr old parents lost all their money when Fannie/May went down, Do you think Barack Obama could take some of the million or so he got from FannieMay as campaign contributions & compensate my Mom & Dad? I mean yo, u gonna help your fat cat buddies, what up wit dat?
Still,his reasoning here seems to me to be convoluted. CEOs ought to be paid big bucks for making money, not for making the losses less than they could have been.
I can not appreciate the two different CEOs who put a number of my friends out of their jobs because of mismanagement.
The workers got unemployed, the stockholders got diddley, and the 2 CEOs each got 5 million bucks as Bradlees Department Stores were run out of business because of their incompetence.
Most folks get paid after they do their work. It should be so with corporate CEOs and with ball players as well. Might as well include politicians in that group.
Ridiculous argument!
People who destroy things should not get rich doing it.
The CEO pay issue was just a way to keep the peasantry at each other’s throats instead of concentrating on the real thiefs and crooks.
Politicians know that nothing works better than fomenting class warfare over petty issues to keep taxpayers from ripping democrats and republicans apart, limb by limb.
The money that can be saved by limiting CEO pay is chump change compared to the money that can be lost because you cannot attract top-notch talent.
Sowell doesn't understand what people are so irritated about. Paying top-notch CEOs the market rate isn't the problem. The problem is the companies that are paying top-notch rates to bottom-notch CEOs.
Exactly! What the heck happened with firing them for gross negligence and incompetence???
Correct and Dr. Sowell is saying to get past that and deal with the real problems.
If the CEO has such a contract, the company has to buy them out.
So both you and Mr. Sowell are correct.
If a contract exists, he is right.
If there is no contract, highly unlikely, he should get one paycheck with his pink slip attached.
What really sets some people off is the fact that a CEO who has mismanaged some corporation into losing billions of dollars is rewarded with a severance package worth millions.
Think about it. If the CEO’s decisions are costing the company billions, it is a bargain to get him out the door immediately for millions, rather than having his departure delayed by either internal struggles or battles in the courts.
It is the same principle if you are married to someone who is impossible to live with. The divorce may cost far more than the marriage— and still be worth every cent of it.
Thank you but small minded petty people don’t think.
They are consumed by class envy and emotional.
Politically imposed limits on the pay of CEOs is one of the most penny-wise and pound-foolish things that can be done. The difference between a top-notch CEO and a second-rate CEO can be billions of dollars on the bottom line.
That is what drives up the pay of CEOs. If you want someone who will be top-notch in running organizations as huge and complex as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, there is no point offering $5 million a year if similar enterprises elsewhere are paying $20 million for people with the kind of ability required.
Who is going to take a $15 million pay cut to go run these enterprises, in addition to having to put up with politicians?
The money that can be saved by limiting CEO pay is chump change compared to the money that can be lost because you cannot attract top-notch talent.
Thank you!
Pay yourself trillions if you like, as long as you don’t come whining to the government to buy up your bad debts.
Thomas Sowell is a Racist to expect answers.
Pray for W, Gov Palin and Our Troops
But, the CEO pay limit in the bill was after the fact. So, any company that had bad debt purchased from it would have to limit current CEO pay. Most likely, the CEO who caused the problem is now gone, and the person who will have to be brought in to try to turn around the company will have his salary severely limited. Unfortunately, that doesn’t give incentive to the best to come in and try and turn these failing businesses around.
Needs to be said often :
Plus this is the stock holders money, not the taxpayers. One can sell their stocks, but taxpayers are trapped.
Gorelick and Raines stole from the taxpayers.
“If all those CEOs agreed to work for nothing, that would not be enough to lower the bailout money by one percent.”
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