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Obama to cap pay of bailout execs
President Obama speaks with several CEOs about the economic stimulus package in the Roosevelt Room of the White House
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TEXT OF STORY
Renita Jablonski: You take bailout money, you may take a hit in your paycheck. President Barack Obama will drive that idea home in a speech in about an hour and a half, or I should say about an hour. Marketplace's Nancy Marshall Genzer reports.
Nancy Marshall Genzer: President Obama wants to cap executive pay at $500,000 a year. Now, that may seem like a lot of money. But for a corporate big wig, it's chump change. But don't expect them to be out on street. Companies will have some leeway to supplement CEO salaries. Walter Gerasimowicz of Meditron Asset Management says corporations may bend whatever rules they're given.
WALTER GERASIMOWICZ: They will attempt to get around them with other forms of bonus plan or compensation that has not been included in the restrictions.
Some corporate types have said the new pay rules will discourage companies from accepting bailout money. But Gerasimowicz says many firms are hurting, and they'll have no choice.
In Washington, I'm Nancy Marshall Genzer for Marketplace.
I'd like to know who these "critics" are. You'll notice none of them actually step forward and say this policy is wrong. I find it amusing these same "critics" don't find it draconian to cut pay and benefits, to their employees, and then lay them off as their 401Ks vaporize into nothing and then after running their companies into the ground, have their own hands out like nothing is wrong.
I see it this way, I'm the taxpayer. I'm loaning them money to stimulate the economy NOT to put it in their own backpockets or pay for lobbyists to oppose the pending workers rights legislation coming up later this year. So, they don't want to borrow the money? Fine, if this is what they are going to spend it on, I don't want to loan it to them.
I agree with the previous statement by Mr. Semmel completely. Greed is destructive and these individuals have lead the charge for years. Just when they were going to reap the results of their greed, they asked for taxpayer help (yes, asked... using "unless" scenarios is still asking for assistance). Now, it is obvious just how greedy they are. If only executives were treated like the workers they lay off.
Their abuses are the number one threat to democracy and simultaneously the number one cheer leader for socialism.
"Critics call the curbs on executive pay Draconian. They says [sic]the salary caps could cause companies to reject government money when they need it the most."
This to me openly declares that the Wall Street execs are clearly more interested in lining their own pockets than even attempting to fix the ills of the current debacle of the financial system. Corporate America is in the veiled process of plundering the US Treasury. To me what is happening is transparent.
