McCain: Regulation and Golden Parachutes

What the CEOs got away with:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/159439

Debra, That issue was covered in an article in the local newspaper's Business Section which said that all those comps, benefits, and golden parachutes must be paid - by the taxpayers, because they have already "earned" those, and there's no law that can override those wages and benefits. That means that those $22 million (some more and some less) dollar parachutes will be paid by the $700 billion bailout with taxpayer monies.

Lovely heh?

I'm not sure how the CEOs can claim they "earned" multi-million dollar salaries or golden parachutes when they ran their companies into the ground and are begging for a taxpayer bailout. On the other hand, Congress has the power of the purse and may legally and constitutionally place any conditions it wants on government hand-outs: take it or leave it. Thus, the CEOs will have to agree to reductions in their compensation packages or turn down taxpayer money and allow their companies to go belly-up.

None can "claim" they earned $100,000, but they will still "take" what's coming to them legally - according to current federal laws. Payroll liabilities must be paid. Whether the current congress will change that law concerning the bailout is not promising, because they're talking about limiting "future" earnings - as I understand it.

We'll just have to wait and see.

i would say that many - if not most - CEO's of large corporations have received pretty good pay packages over the years - perhaps some were deserving of the pay .
when i look at directorships of large corporations the same names seem to show up over-and-over again .
i doubt that many CEO's would be terrible worried about not being re-appointed if they don't accept the package and oversight that might be proposed by government . (they've made hay while the sun was shining !)

most CEO's that lose their jobs - even for incompetence - have enough "chits to cash in" (meaning : the right kind of friends) that they don't have to worry about their livelyhoods !
hbg

It is the CEO club where CEOs from other corporations form the directory. It is called interlocking directory. They give each 0ther great benefits.

The stock options they get should have one restriction - they cannot cash it in when they quit or get fired. They should hold it for five years. The CEO of Nortel cashed in his stocks almost immediately after he quit to the tune of $100 million and a few months later Nortel stocks sank due to the dot.com bubble bursting and also from creative bookkeeping. Those who run down the corporation should hand back the stocks to repay the damage done to the corporation and should be written into the stock options.

hbg, I disagree; that's because CEO pay increased over hundreds of percent while the worker's pay didn't keep up with inflation. Nobody's pay deserve those increases over the workers.