CEO Bonuses...

[clips]

The question is simple...should their bonuses be capped? I think they should do away with it altogether until the economy comes back. There\'s no way these jerks should be receiving bailout funds from the tax payer then turn around and give themselves million dollar bonuses while their company is sinking.

And every last one of these ceo\'s oppose this notion....absolutley baffling...at a time when most employees are not receiving cost of living pay raises, or being layed off altogether, these ceo\'s want to act like it\'s business as usual for them.

I used to run payroll reports at my old job in jersey...long story short, we were able to see what everybody in the company brings home after taxes..even our ceo...mind you this was back in say like 92 or 93...anyway our ceo at the time made something like 1.5 mil a year, and even with all of his stocks and perks and benefits maxed out on his check, he still took home 15,000 every two weeks.

 So these ceo\'s are doing just fine without the bonuses,...it\'s just greed that is driving this whole process....thoughts?

[GmanJoe]

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/02/02/2009-02-02_stealers_could_learn_from_steelers_owner.html

[SIZE="5"]Stealers could learn from Steelers owner Dan Rooney[/SIZE]

After the boisterous distraction of the Pittsburgh Steelers winning the Super Bowl, we return to a life upended by the Wall Street Stealers, the big shots who lived grander than kings while losing billions in other people\'s money.

No street thief was ever more in need of a role model than the odious, self-enthralled Stealers who kept awarding themselves monstrous bonuses, even as they held out a tin cup for a taxpayer bailout.

Fortunately, the Steelers also offer us an example for all CEOs to follow, in the person of the team\'s chairman, Dan Rooney.

[COLOR="Orange"]Where the Wall Street big shots require a chauffeured limo, Rooney drives a Buick and never gave himself special parking privileges.

"Where else can you see the owner driving around looking for a parking spot?" linebacker James Farrior asked a reporter.

Where our big shots think it their right to fly in luxurious private jets, Rooney crowds in with everyone else on the team plane.

"Sitting in the seat that doesn\'t recline, in front of the bathroom," said backup quarterback Charlie Batch.

Where the big shots lunch in exclusive restaurants or cushy executive dining rooms, Rooney heads for the team cafeteria, where he grabs a tray and waits on line.

Where the big shots reside in multimillion-dollar palaces, he lives in the house where he was raised, just down from a fast-food franchise. [/COLOR]

Where the big shots act dismissively high-handed with their minions, Rooney approaches one and all as an equal, looking them in the eye and shaking hands. He has neither an entourage nor bodyguards.

[COLOR="orange"]"He must not know he\'s rich," defensive back Ryan Clark has has reported thinking. [/COLOR]

As others have noted, Rooney\'s wealth is the team. He does not look to siphon off millions or score big with risky investments. He keeps the payroll within the team\'s means. A dollar is always to be spent wisely.

[COLOR="orange"]Compare that to the likes of John Thain of Merrill Lynch, who brought a $35,000 commode with company cash while helping to lead the whole economy into the toilet.[/COLOR] Rooney\'s approach is one that could lead us out of the continuing mess.

"We believe in trying to do things the way they should be," he said the other day.

[COLOR="orange"]His sense of basic fairness led to pro football\'s Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview at least one minority candidate before filling a head coach position. He followed his rule in hiring young, untested Mike Tomlin, who led the team to Sunday night\'s Super Bowl victory. [/COLOR]

Rooney backed another young and untested leader of African-American extraction in the presidential election when he endorsed Barack Obama.

Our new President is also a big believer in doing things the right way, and any big shot who takes taxpayer dollars should know the days of excess are over.

The example for them to follow is Obama\'s favorite big businessman. And nobody would be happier to have a boss like Rooney than the honest and hardworking souls who have done the grunt work in a place greedy big shots have made a dirty word.

"There are thousands of back office people \'on Wall Street\' who are losing their jobs in droves, who are also incredibly angry at the Ivy League crew at the top," one staff-level person wrote me an e-mail the other day.

The staffer noted that 1,000 financial workers died on 9/11 and that the "back office survivors \'on Wall Street\' after the attack fought their way through smoke, fire and the stench of death to go to work in buildings with power supplied by generators and breathed in what we now know were toxic fumes in order to get America\'s economy going again."

Such people deserve much better than the bosses who sought only to enrich themselves regardless of the risk to everyone else, even in a time of war.

There is only one Dan Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers, but there is nothing to stop those Wall Stealers from acting a lot more like him.

We might all end up winners.

[videoholic]

Who\'s to say Rooney is right?  Sounds to me like somewhere in the middle is where you want to be.

It\'s right to put employees first. You want to create a business with the longevity to support you, your lifestyle, and that of your employees. You don\'t want to cut your business at the knees and let a bunch of people go because you\'ve been tooling around in the company jet with your diamond encrusted PSP and a $35,000 toilet.
 
If keeping all that in mind puts you somewhere in the middle, then cool.

Most people are only paying attention to this now because the economy is turning to shit.  
 
As soon as the recovery begins, everyone will forget about it, and the rich will go back to their alternate universe free from scrutiny.
 
The fact is this kind of behavior has always been wrong, in the good times and bad, but it\'s the "american way" so you\'re not allowed to speak out about it.

[clips]

Finally a prez that gets it...:thumb:....he may have hit a speedbump with a couple of cats droppin\' off out of his cabinet because of tax issues, but he\'s not letting that distract him from zeroing in on these ceo\'s that want to have a good time at the tax payers expense....


http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/04/obama.executive.pay/index.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29003620/

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Wednesday imposed $500,000 caps on senior executive pay for the most distressed financial institutions receiving federal bailout money, saying Americans are upset with “executives being rewarded for failure.”
 
“This is America. We don’t disparage wealth. We don’t begrudge anybody for achieving success,” Obama said. “But what gets people upset — and rightfully so — are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.”
 
The pay cap would apply to all institutions that have negotiated agreements with the Treasury Department for “exceptional assistance.” Those would include American International Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., and Citigroup Inc.

It will be interesting to see how many corporations now start saying "Oh it seems we don\'t need a bailout after all."

Is this one of those slippery slopes toward socialism? Just wanted to see if I should get a good footing yet.

Also, how many senior executives are quietly changing their job titles right now?