With the news that Citibank is apparently about to be handed a $300B gift from the taxpayers, following on the news that automakers' CEOs took private jets to Washington to beg for their bailout, following on the news that AIG's suits took expensive vacations while getting their bailout, I've decided that we need to attach one more condition to this largesse.
There's been debate about how bailouts should come with conditions -- one of which have been strict limits on CxO compensation, especially the obscene bonuses these people have been given themselves. And I'm in agreement with that -- these people pay themselves bonuses for breathing.
But I think we need to do some house-cleaning while we're at it.
So here's the condition I want to see dictated to the Big 3 automakers and Citibank and whoever else is next in line: on acceptance of this bailout, every CxO officer of your company will be fired instantly. No severance, no bonus, nothing. They're done the instant the check clears. Get out.
After all, the CxO officers are personally responsible for the mess the company is in. It is their incompetence, stupidity, greed and ignorance which has created the problem, so they cannot be permitted to keep their jobs. They are expendable.
Who will take over? Will they be knowledgeable and experienced? Will they be intelligent enough? I don't know -- but it can't possibly be any worse, so I'm willing to let another group take a crack at it. Perhaps, if they know up front that the penalty for failure isn't a golden parachute they'll be a little more motivated.
And then? Then we need to have a chat about the Boards of Directors who allowed this debacle to happen on their watch.