Earth to Wall Street

Living in Missouri, it's easy to be disheartened by the fact that you share a state with people 51% of whom were ready to transfer the Bush economy-hole-diggin' shovel to John McCain and Sarah Palin. But for any resident of the Show-Me State looking for a sign that we've done something right lately, you don't have to look far beyond the actions and words of Senator Claire McCaskill. Here's Claire, as captured by Eugene Robinson's Washington Post op ed.

Sen. Claire McCaskill's righteous verdict on shameless, clueless, bonus-grubbing executives should be carved on the tombstone of the whole "Masters of the Universe" ethos that brought us to this moment of dire economic peril: "These people are idiots."

Senator McCaskill's words as she was "ranting for the nation" were satisfyingly direct, but her action was equally direct.

McCaskill introduced a bill to limit compensation at any company receiving bailout money to $400,000 -- the salary of the president of the United States. It's hard to improve on her words: "We should have done it in the first place. But I don't think any of us thought these guys were this stupid. I don't think any of us believed that they would take billions of dollars in bonuses while their institutions were literally days from being wiped out. But they did. And we've learned our lesson."

Yes, they are that stupid. So stupid they're drooling all the way to the bank. They've created a corporate culture that not only fails to punish foolish behavior, it rewards it. On this side of the scale: executives gut their corporation, cripple the economy, and pocket billions in the process, on the other side they work hard to make rational decisions, share the profits with the shareholders, reward employees for their hard work, and take a fair cut that matches their contribution to the company's long term health. Is it any wonder this scale has tipped completely over?  

Tell 'em, Eugene.

Things have changed. No longer does it seem reasonable -- if it ever did -- that the average CEO makes 344 times as much as the average worker, as was estimated last August by the Institute for Policy Studies and the nonprofit group United for a Fair Economy. No longer does it seem acceptable that John Thain, the since-ousted Merrill Lynch chief who ordered the accelerated bonuses that so irked McCaskill, would spend $1.2 million of his fast-sinking firm's money to redecorate his office -- and then, with Merrill's losses being revealed as even greater than feared, request a bonus of up to $10 million for himself.

The idea that executives and boards will undertake this reform on their own? Now that really is stupid. If we want this changed, it's going to have to come from the ground floor, and from Capitol Hill, not from the board room.