Finally a pay cut for bailed out banks
A long time coming, but the US pay czar (Ken Feinberg) will cut the salaries of 175 employees at firms receiving large bail out funds. Ken Lewis for BaofAmercia will receive no salary for 2009. At Citigroup, management is telling their employee's it doesn't matter now as his company will be giving out longer term stock grants. At AIG, the pay czar has said, no employee will make over 200,000.00 for 2009.
It's about time they did this and as much as I think the government should be out of our lives, these institutions that took our tax dollars have flaunted huge pay raises and bonuses, while the country is still in the depths of high unemployment and credit freezes, had to step in.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 10:14 AM
10 Comments
10 Comments:
Nice to see something something bad actually happening to the people who caused the economic meltdown of the US economy. Long time coming though, why did it take so long is what I want to know. And why are they even being allowed to make $200,000? They should be getting paid for their worth, which based on the performance of their companies, is about $0.
Be careful here people. Jim is right when he raises the issue of keeping the government out of private business. As much as we hate that these guys are collecting these salaries, I hate even more that the government has the right to step in and say what people are worth. Of course, we also hated the fact that the government stepped in and bailed these companies out when their bad business decisions led to them being on the brink of failure. Read your history books people. This country is a democracy, not a socialist entity. Our government has no right dictating the practices of private industry. We are on a slippery slope here, and this pay czar doing this is adding an awful lot of grease to an already slippery slide.
How much of a difference do you really think this limiting of a few salaries will make to all of us at the other end of the spectrum, struggling to make ends meet on unemployment, or with no income at all if the benefits have run out? Do they deserve that ridiculous amount of compensation? No. But is limiting that a productive way to help me at the other end of things, also No. Makes a nice news story and positive reinforcement for the President, but does not really impact the state of the economy in any way that is going to help 99.9% of us.
You would feel differently people if Obama came to your company to review the salary structure and determine, based on that “quick” review, what your services were worth to the company. There is a reason smart people choose to work in private industry and not for the government. Private industry pays more. If the government came in to review the salary structure at most private industry, you can bet we would all be taking a cut in pay. Not saying it is right, just saying it is reality.
About time the feds stepped in to stop this. It is our money these jerks are spending on people who work for companies that would have gone under if we had not given them money. We should be firing people that led the companies into that position, not rewarding them with bonuses.
U.S. pay czar? What has he been doing up until now? Sure has not done anything to make my pay more fair and equitable.
Any of you read 1984? Big daddy is now watching all of us!
Jim, lots of differing opinions here. Your thoughts on this as a Libertarian leaning towards republican? What do you think of business taking such a big role in private industry?
We look for you ideas on things Pillsbury more than we look for the news you report. Weigh in more on what you think. That is the reason most of those who read this come here.
Michael, Linda and George make good points. We'd be pissed if Uncle came and said our pay is to high. Name a program that Uncle is in... and i'll bet it's fraught with some form of fraud, waste, corruption and just plain poorly run. Look at medical fraud... 1 million dollars every 12 hours. Look at how we treat our veterans, both huge programs that mean well, but are run by bureaucracies that game this system for their own benifit.
I did hear that the pay czar will not be cutting anymore salaries.
Perhaps this whole maneuver was a stunt for the outraged American tax payers who were looking for blood on the streets. It's all about spin and how they look at the end of the day.
The only but here is that these financial institutes are getting our tax dollars to stay afloat and granted there were no strings attached to that money back in 08, our money is being paid to those who are just ignoring the facts and how we got here to begin with.
Loaning public money to private institutes to keep from taking down the whole banking industry down should have come with some strings or at least, the players could have cut some of the bonus and raise money, but choose not to.
Lewis and all the rest ... may end up in jail at some point and as Obama has promised, financial reform will take some shape in the coming weeks on the Hill with the understanding that those who play with fire and bet on our failure, must not be given the keys to the city in bonuses and pay raises.
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