[XR7]

Are we are going to let all the low-lifes that let this happen walk away with their fortunes intact by indebting our children? When do we, as a nation, say enough is enough? Will John McCain? Is he really a "maverick"? Or will he go along with all of the rest of the crowd and embrace expediency over principle?

WaMu CEO Alan Fishman Gets $18 Million Golden Parachute

Alan H. Fishman, the CEO of Washington Mutual, will likely be unemployed after only a few weeks on the job. But don't cry for Fishman. He's set to walk away with about $18 million in bonuses after his three week stint at the failed savings and loan giant. His "golden parachute" is raising eyebrows, particularly because of his short tenure at WaMu. Washington Mutual was the nation's largest savings and loan. It was taken over Thursday night by federal bank regulators and then sold to JP Morgan Chase for $1.9 billion. This, as lawmakers continued to work on a $700 billion bailout for bad debt in the financial industry. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington Mutual gave Fishman a $7.5 million bonus when it hired him on Sept. 8, and guaranteed him $11.6 million in severance if he was terminated, the so-called "golden parachute" that has created controversy when failed executives walk with huge rewards. Fishman also was eligible for annual bonuses of up to 365 percent of his annual base pay of $1 million

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1066149/wamu_ceo_alan_fishman_gets_18_million.html

[txrangerette]

The example you cite isn’t part of the bailout. Yes a failed bank was briefly taken over by the Feds but then immediately sold to another bank and this wasn’t in any way, shape or form part of the bailout we are discussing.

So as odious and crazy as it is that this Fishman guy left with all this dough from a severance package when he’d only been there 3 weeks, what would you have the Fed government do about it? Write and pass even more legislation trying to regulate the pay of CEO’s? Get even more deeply involved in trying to control every aspect of what once was a thriving private economy, even with its warts?

I say no.

[brytlea]

This is such a red herring. Lets go after the guys who actually drove companies into the ground (Stan O’Neill?). There is no possible way Fishman had an impact in that short amount of time. I keep wondering why he’s the poster boy instead of the much more deserving out there.