Bailout package unlikely to significantly curb executive pay

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: USAToday.COM

High pay and "golden parachutes" for poor-performing executives in finance and other industries still is a big issue, but the bailout bill passed Friday by the U.S. House likely won't rein in overpaid Wall Street moguls. Compensation consultants who work with companies on pay packages say the bill's sections on executive compensation are so broadly and vaguely written that executives and companies will create dozens of new ways to boost leaders' pay anyway.

"This is tinkering around the margins, without really taking a fundamental look at executive compensation plans," says Howard Sherman, CEO of the Governance Metrics International.

<snip>
"All the bite has been taken out of the bill," says Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at The Corporate Library, a corporate-governance research firm. "There are so many loopholes."

Last year, the top tier of executives at Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns made a total of $613 million, or an average of $123 million for those investment banks, says Graef Crystal, a pay expert and author of The Crystal Report on Executive Compensation. That's three times the average in other industries.





Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2008-10-03-bailout-ceo-pay_N.htm

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History will show us that Paulson sold out his country to benefit his Wall Street cronies. What a legacy the * administration is leaving.

[dipsydoodle]

1. I thought they included

a clause under which high payments which have come about as a result of this fraudaulent scam, going back to 2003, would now be taxed at 90% retrospectively with up to 10 years, on request, for the culprits to pay back tax. :shrug:

[Waiting For Everyman]

2. Really??? I'm so shocked!

But... but... they promised! :eyes:

Big, resounding Duh!

[riverdeep]

3. No kidding.

There are also out clauses for several of the other things we wanted. Oversight is questionable, and who gets the job of 'aiding' the federal government- the same people who cooked up these schemes. They're going to get billions in consulting and whatever else. Win on the way up, win on the way down.

The bill went from three pages to over four hundred. I think I'd rather have the three pages back, at least then you could see clearly how you were getting screwed.

[chupacabranation]

5. Really well-said. n/t

[TexasObserver]

4. "Bailout package unlikely to __________" will be a recurring theme.

BOON-doggle!!

Money to pay off Bush friends and lard for the late collaborators in congress.