Thursday, February 26, 2009

Good Performance or Bad Performance - Excessive Compensation

The New York Times article: "After Huge Losses, a Move to Reclaim Executives’ Pay" It is amazing that corporate executive get paid big bucks irrelevant of the issue of how well their company actually performed. These executives are essentially running private fiefdoms for their own benefit. In theory they are supposed to work for the shareholders, but that is a joke. Below are some reader comments on the article posted on Times webpage.

Elsie wrote: "To heck with "shortly before problems emerged." These guys--all corporate CEOs--are the new robber barons. They steal from the government, they steal from the shareholders, they steal from their employees. They steal from their customers. And because we value capitalism and a free market nothing can stop them. We need a new Teddy Roosevelt to drag these leeches off our necks. I think better than nothing would be to just bring back all the regulations that were put in place after the last depression--Glass-Steagal, et al."

Maryann wrote: "CEO salary contracts are a joke. They are not based on performance as they would be for a lower level worker, but based on the flawed assumption that, without these astronomical salaries, these "highly competent (that's a joke) executives would flee to other companies. ... That's what we've been hearing for years whenever the subject of lofty executive compensation in an unprofitable company came up."

Sampson wrote: "Go get 'em. I am all for a clawback. Doesnt the IRS get a clawback if we've made a mistake in our tax filing and been audited? These guys have made "mistakes" (no, the correct word is "cheated"). They have cheated their shareholders, the public, the entire nation and now the entire world. The least they can do is payback. The best case is to punish them for POOR performance. They took money saying they delivered good work and they deserved it. They didnt deliver and they dont deserve. Clawback."

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