Excellent discussion on MJ this morning with Elizabeth Warren talking about executive compensation

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

and the arrogance of these Wall Street assholes bonussing themselves after being bailed out by taxpayers.

Elizabeth Warren said the key words in explaining their behavior were "arrogance" and "cosy" (in terms of their relationships with their BODS. You know the tide has turned against the execs when even Maria Bartoloroma(?) won't come to their defense.

I personally do know the way to curb executive compensation excess and I have stated it here many times. They need to be SUED or charged with outright theft of company assets and conversion of such for their personal benefit. If the regulators won't bring criminal charges, which I believe they should, then I think the stockholders, and particular the employee stockholders who have large shares of these companies in their 401Ks, should bring suit for the plundering of the company by these executives, who are essentially robbing ALL shareholders of money which should legitimately be paid out in dividends or capital improvements, or investments to shore up the companies for future downturns. These bastards feel completely free to loot publicly held companies right out in the open and the world lets them get away with it!

And they'll be right there with their hands out for the next go around, because as Elizabeth Warren pointed out this morning - NOTHING HAS CHANGED!!!!!!!!

Do you understand that - NOTHING HAS CHANGED interms of tighter regulations! They can all just go out and do the same smarmy practices that got us to the brink of financial collapse in a fiscal version of Gound Hog Day. They don't care about their companies, they don't care about their employees, they don't care about the stockholders and they don't care about the taxpayers - they care about themselves and their giant egos and their ludicrous, immoral compensation packages and their badges of membership in the I GOT MINE club!!!!

AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:puke: :mad:

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. That was an excellent segment. Imagine

putting her at Treasury, Krugman at the Fed and Volker kicking Summers to the curb.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. A perfect lineup

The more you know, the more you are disgusted at the role Geitner and Summers are playing.

[Skidmore]

3. It was a nice rebuttal of Scarborough and Bartiromo's

stupidity. I was impressed with the passion in her responses. She took no excuses for the behavior of this industry and its execs from these two.

[femrap]

9. Elizabeth takes no

crap from anyone. I wish she were head of the Treasury.

[HamdenRice]

4. You're spot on one issue in particular

I've never understood why there are not more shareholder lawsuits over executive compensation -- especially considering how outright fraudulent the system of establishing compensation levels is, ie hand picked compensation committees and consultants.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. I know. And I can't in particular understand why the employee shareholders

do not have an uprising. These guys get the shaft the most when their 401Ks go into the toilet, but the guys at the top are making out like John Dillinger.

Even more horrible is when the execs let the employee pension funds go down the tubes in bankruptcies, but their golden parachutes have been walled off into shell holding companies and they are safe - WHY is this tolerated by the employees!!!???? Where are the lawsuits, the protests at the annual stockholder meetings?

This is why Eliot Spitzer is such a loss. I wish he was STILL AG of New York. He was practically the ONLY guy willing to take on the big boys.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. kick! After YEARS of bitching and moaning about this topic, I am glad to

see it taking off, even if it took a financial collapse to do it.

[slipslidingaway]

7. knr nt

[femrap]

8. Most companies require that employees

sign an 'arbitration agreement.' An employee can't get justice. Look at the women who was raped and kidnapped at KBR in Iraq. No criminal charges allowed.

I remember in the mid-80's when I had to sign one. And my first thought was. Now my boss can rape me and I won't be able to go through the criminal justice system.

And you're right. Nothing has changed. The dollar is going to be devalued. It will be very ugly.

The only way to get these CEO's is to protest at their homes....which has been done. Their pictures should be enlarged and used as dartboards. Charge money to throw a dart at the Greedy Asshole!

That sounds like fun to me.

[redqueen]

10. Shareholders believe that astronomical pay for CEOs means they'll get bigger dividends.

It's simple greed driving every facet of this nonsense.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

11. Not that long ago there was a post around here from someplace like Businessweek

that showed some company we had all heard of (I can't remember if was a health insurer or a financial services company) paid out MORE in bonuses than it paid out in shareholder dividends. The chart showed net profit before bonuses and then after.

So shareholders who expect that are just gullible rubes.

Whenever I see Jack Welch held up as some kind of business guru I just want to puke my guts out. I see him as a complete leech/parasite with no moral compass, no sense of judgment or scale and a massive sense of entitlement. I am referring of course to the seamy details of his deal with GE revealed by his wife in their divorce which paid him outright HUGE sums of money in his retirement, but then still forked over for a pied a terre, corporate jets and his . . . laundry. So, GE stockholders, how does it feel to know that you guys paid for $200K worth of corporate jets a MONTH for some RETIRED multizillionaire who was too cheap to pay for his own friggin laundry?


http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/article838787.ece#

Notice too how the SEC was "investigating" the perks. Gee, I wonder how that worked out.

[redqueen]

12. I imagine that at most they paid a small penalty...

and that was that.

[Toucano]

13. Anyone have a link?

I would love to see or hear it.

(I don't know if MJ is a radio program or television program, sorry).

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

16. Sorry! MJ is Morning Joe on MSNBC

I usually abbreviate to save space in the title.

I bet they probably have it up on their website by now or perhaps it's on youtube. People are usually quick to post stuff like this.

[DemReadingDU]

17. TV, here's the MSNBC link

Executive pay cuts
Oct. 21: The Obama administration is aiming to cut salaries of top executives at bailed out firms. Elizabeth Warren, the chairman of the panel that oversees the $700 billion federal bailout fund, discusses topic on Morning Joe, with Maria Bartiromo, and regulars, about financial reform and those arrogant and cozy CEOs.

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=msnbc&vid=df837079-0e08-48d8-b48c-f8474033e53c

[Toucano]

18. Thanks. n-t

[CTyankee]

14. I was getting ready to turn MJ off when she came on and I stuck with it.

I LOVE that woman! I heard her on NPR the other day and noted how fantastic she was: clear, concise, passionate, rational. I knew she'd be fabulous and she was. Usually, I let hubby change the channel (to local weather) when he comes down in the morning but today I said he had to wait. He wasn't happy but when we changed the channel finally it was GMA, talking about brides. Some airhead talking about her wedding dress...well, the thing speaks for itself, as the saying goes...

[Romulox]

15. I don't watch the program. Really wish I had caught the segment. nt

[Toucano]

19. Kick. n-t