This is kinda an interesting story about how the Swiss have had enough and maybe even the EU has had enough when it comes to executive compensation.
There is something therapeutic about this story - in a 99% kind of way.
The straw that appears to have broken the camels' back based on news reports is really a "fool me once shame on you" issue.
FIRST
A single businessman - almost went bankrupt when Swiss Air went under - while the execs as Swiss Air got huge bonuses for taking the company under.
That businessman - Thomas Minder - didn't sit idly by.
He started working on a referendum to limit executive pay.
Then
SECOND
The Swiss vote for stricter rules on executive pay was sparked by outrage over a proposed $78 million payment to outgoing chairman of drugs company Novartis Daniel Vasella
And the camels back broke
The referendum happened.
Which led to this:
On Sunday Swiss citizens voted overwhelmingly to rein in exorbitant executive pay.
Days before the Swiss vote, the EU parliament approved a plan to cap bonuses for financial executives and bankers.
And the interesting thing about the Swiss referendum is that it includes consequences - -
jail time.
As noted in the second paragraph above the EU is planning on looking at caps on bonuses for execs also, effective in 2014 - but that doesn't look as promising as it has to be approved by the entire EU to take affect.
What they are proposing is interesting
bonuses will be capped at a year's pay and a perk of two years' salary could only be paid if a majority of shareholders agreed to it
The author of the initiative put before Swiss citizens noted
various big foreign groups, including Transocean and Coca-Cola, have moved some or all of their operations to Switzerland.
“There is no danger that firms will leave,” he said. “After all, it is not the executives that have to approve moving a company’s headquarters – it’s the shareholders. And where are these companies going to go? Europe is also discussing limits on executive pay. Are these companies going to go to Somalia?”
"Europe is also discussing limits on executive pay. Are these companies going to go to Somalia?”
Maybe some of them will decide to come back to the good ol' US and actually pay their taxes here.
I'm sure there is a lot more out there about these stories - but I just thought I'd take a few minutes to grab some snips and write this up and bring it to the consciousness of DK readers.