Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

CNN ^ | 1/30/2009 | CNN

[Peter Horry]

“So you are perfectly okay with an incompetent exec making $100 Million while on the govt dole (your money)”

So you are perfectly okay with an incompetent politician giving YOUR money to a failing company and then trying to tell them what to do. Let them run their company (within legal restraints) and if they fail, let them go out of business or declare bankruptcy and then be under the administration of someone a little more capable (hopefully) than the people we see involved now.

[meyer]

The better answer is to not hand out bailout money.

Precisely - the government has NO business giving away the money stolen from future taxpayers.

It's amazing how many socialists are here on FR these days.

[Red in Blue PA]

“How about a pay cap on “ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS TOO””

Last I checked they did not receive bonuses!

[Argus]

Political overlords don’t need their salaries when they can make a killing in so many other ways.

After Joseph Stalin died, they found decades worth of his paychecks stuffed into his desk drawer. When you own the whole country already, why bother even cashing your entirely symbolic paycheck?

[Dante3]

I agree.

[Las Vegas Ron]

Incompetent CEO’s brought us to where we are.

You are blind. Most of this can be laid at the feet or government meddling in the free market. The CEO's are for the most part the scapegoats. Open your eyes

[Citizen Blade]

I am for this. You take bailout money, no more million dollar payouts.

You miss the bigger point- we should not have been bailing people out in the first place. Giving government the power to enact wage controls doesn't make things better.

[ArmedConservative]

chrisser, spot on.

I could not agree more.

[Red in Blue PA]

“It takes a helluva good executive at the reigns of a struggling company to get it back into profitability”

If the CEO is incompetent while making $100 Million, then what?

Would love to hear you and others if we subsituted “GM” for “Wall Street”

[meyer]

Most of these execs aren’t worth $400, let alone $400,000.

Nobody's asking YOU to hire them.

[devere]

“In the past year, there have been big changes, in case you didn’t see them. These companies will need to respond accordingly.”

They need to change to avoid criticism from poorly-informed people? I suppose they do. But stiffing employees who turned in an outstanding performance is not the way to do it.

If we kowtow to communists, we will soon enough be living under communism.

[Red in Blue PA]

“If we kowtow to communists, we will soon enough be living under communism.”

Nobody is forcing you to work at these companies.

[meyer]

Why would anyone be opposed to limiting compensation to incompetent, fatcat executives receiving MY taxpayer dollars?

Frankly, if the government wanted to attach strings to this bailout (with which I do NOT agree in the first place), they should have done so before giving the money away. You don't hand somebody millions and then 3 month later tell them how they should have spent it.

[ArmedConservative]

“If the CEO is incompetent while making $100 Million, then what?”

Executive compensation is determined by the Board of Directors. If he is truely incompetent shareholders should demand the CEO be ousted. There is no role for goverment in this process.

[Red in Blue PA]

“You don’t hand somebody millions and then 3 month later tell them how they should have spent it. “

Hey, they can always return it if they do not like the terms!

That would serve everyone!

[Red in Blue PA]

“Executive compensation is determined by the Board of Directors”

No it is not.

It is determined by the Compensation Committee, which is NOT accountable to shareholders.

[graywaiter]

Exactly, but it surely is going to cost more than $400k to find a competent executive to replace the ousted ones.

Totally agree. Who in their right mind would take a job under those conditions. Competent people are EXPENSIVE folks! But I bet this sure gets the wall street wackos in an uproar. So much for scratch my back, I'll scratch yours zer0. Buyer's remorse anyone??

[chrisser]

If the CEO is incompetent while making $100 Million, then what?

You think a member of Congress is capable to judge the competency of a CEO. Think you are?

Personally, I think those who are stockholders in the company should be the judge. Now, if the government wants to get a few seats on the board of directors to be a part of the decision making process in return for the chunk of change they put in, I'm fine with that.

Would love to hear you and others if we subsituted “GM” for “Wall Street”

My answer would be the same. Except, in GM's case, at least until recently, it was the UAW instead of the government, who was meddling where it shouldn't have been. Now, its both and more people will be out of work because of it than if GM had busted the union like they should have years ago.

[Red in Blue PA]

“Who in their right mind would take a job under those conditions. “

In this economy, they aren’t going very far.

[PeterPrinciple]

Competent people are EXPENSIVE folks!

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But not all expensive people are competent..............